The Great Maelstrom
by Aria6
Summary: A catastrophe is threatening an alternate reality, and the occupants are desperately searching for a way out... leading to some interesting happenings. Read and review please!
1. Chapter 1

_The end of a world began with a centimeter_

_In most universes, this did not occur. However, in one unlikely permutation there was a momentary wobble. A red dwarf swung slightly out of orbit and influenced something far greater. Not much, but as time progressed that slight change grew exponentially. A centimeter became a meter. A meter became a kilometer. A kilometer became a thousand kilometers. And so the changes went._

_The thing influenced was a phenomenon referred to by many names. Humans, when they first discerned it, called it the Great Maelstrom. Two black holes in a tight binary orbit, destroying everything in their path. Glorious to look at but fearful to contemplate, it was a force of pure annihilation._

_Even with that small change, it would not hit Earth directly. But it would come close enough. The sun would never survive it, let alone the tiny piece of rock orbiting it._

_By the time Reploids were created, humans were looking uncertainly at the sky. A black hole cannot be seen, because it emits no light. But it permits no light to escape._

_The sky was already turning black._

In a closely related universe, the sky was spangled with bright stars. And the Reploids and humans below them had no idea how lucky they were to be seeing them.

"Hm hm hm… hm?" A young female rookie stopped, puzzled. It was the dead of night, and she was delivering some papers to the navigator on duty. But there was something curious on the floor.

Shifting the papers to one arm, she knelt down to touch it with a tentative hand. The thing on the floor looked like a bizarre mating between a Met and a spider. Well, what was left of it did. It looked like it had been jammed into a trash compactor and ground down, hard. Wiring was sticking out in dozens of directions.

It was still slightly functional, though. There was a sad chirp as it tried to move, and a badly damaged camera focused on her for just a moment. Then the whole thing whined and collapsed, all life going out of it.

"Hrm? Hrmph." The rookie scratched her head, managing to pack a world of meaning into her monosyllables. "Hmmmm." Carefully sliding her other arm under the thingamajig, she took it with her to the navigator. She had no idea what it could be, but it was curious enough that someone should see it.

In another universe…

"Well, that was… abortive." X sighed, leaning back in his chair and reaching for a pack of cigarettes. He pulled one out, lighting it, then passed the pack over to Axl. With death staring them in the face every day, they had all picked up a few bad habits.

"She was pretty, though." Axl offered, passing the cigarettes over to Zero without taking one. His vices ran more towards sweets. In fact, he probably had the biggest sweet tooth in the Hunters. Not that anyone cared anymore.

"Didn't recognize her, not that it means anything." Zero held out his cigarette for X to light, and puffed at it thoughtfully. "That was the Hunter badge, though. Our worlds are that much the same." They had just finished watching the brief video clip the probe had sent them.

"Not enough information," X said flatly. "I'm not leaving this dirtball just to go to another world where I'll get to spend eternity in a black hole."

"Ah, X, that's not what will happen," Axl said with gallows humor. "I've been talking to the astronomers and physicists. The Great Maelstrom'll strip the atmosphere long before the time dilation effect gets too bad and not even Reploids can survive in those kind of temperatures. And time is subjective so even if the time dilation hit you, it'd only seem like a few hours from inside." Of course, from outside the effected zone, final dissolution could take thousands of years. It was all in the perspective.

"Thank you, Axl. I'll sleep a bit more uneasily tonight knowing that." X blew out a smoke ring. "What went wrong with the probe?" He glanced at a face in a nearby screen. It was Gate. He had called them to share the results of his latest experiments.

All kinds of avenues were being pursued in an effort to escape the coming disaster. They only had about fifty more years before the effects began to get catastrophic. The first colony ships had been launched nearly fifty years ago, when the full horror of what was bearing down on them was realized. Those first ships had been capable of traveling at a miserable fraction of the speed of light, and their destinations had been total crapshoots, but in those first years, people had been desperate. Cryogenic freezing allowed at least the possibility of survival, on some far off planet.

People were still desperate, but time was narrowing options. As the Great Maelstrom got closer, ships leaving needed to go faster to outrun it. With all the new technology advances, ships were going at almost .9 of the speed of light. New ships were launched every day, but they couldn't really make a dent in the world's population. What they really needed was faster than light travel, but experiments had not been promising.

X sighed, and closed his eyes. They were in Maverick Hunter HQ, but there wasn't any actual hunting going on. The Maverick wars had degenerated into a kind of despairing peace. What was the point in fighting over a dying world? Sigma had already left in his own colony ship, and good riddance. With any luck, he'd hit a star.

Gate was exploring a different option. By sheer accident, he'd chanced upon a warp to another dimension. It had been very small, but he'd taken readings. Since then, he'd been trying to duplicate the incident and meeting with some success.

"The probe was left too long in the void," he said calmly. The void was Gate's term for the space that was… not really space. A place _between_ realities. It had no physical boundaries, no definition, and could not support matter. Anything left in it for more than a split second seemed to get _squeezed._ "We're still working on making the transition instantaneous." That was the critical part. Although…

"What about the sanity problem?" No one was quite sure what the mental effect of being exposed to the void would be. X tended to think that a person probably just wouldn't see much of anything, or even if you could, the mind would refuse to process it. But the hazard couldn't be ignored.

"Barny the Beetle came back safe and sound and apparently unaffected," Gate reported, holding up a small cage for them to view the creature. It was eating a leaf. "Rocky the mouse, however, was left a little too long in the void despite the titanium casing."

"Agh! Don't show us, please." X grimaced at the thought. "How's your funding going?" Gate looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I'll need some more probes. So perhaps another half million?" X winced, but nodded, then glanced at Axl.

"Axl? Can you ask your girlfriend for that?" Axl nodded, bright and chipper. What was left of the Maverick Hunters was being funded by a billionaire playgirl who was scared to death at the thought of taking a colony ship. She was also a diehard fan of all the hunters, especially Zero, and had developed a crush on Axl. Thankfully, he liked her right back and was cheerfully oblivious to how important his relationship was to the Hunters right now. If they ever had a lovers' spat, X wasn't sure what they'd do.

For now, though…

"Thank you for the report, Gate," X made himself smile, although his heart wasn't in it. "That's some solid progress." Gate smiled back.

"Thank you, X. I'll contact you in a week with my next report." The monitor switched off. There was brief silence, and Zero slowly stood up, going to the window.

An atavistic shudder of fear ran down X's spine. He knew what Zero meant to do. "Zero, don't…"

The red hunter ignored him, and threw open the blinds. It was night, and the stars should have been out. When X had first been created, there had been only a small black blotch against them.

Now there were no stars visible. None at all…

Elsewhere...

The little Met/spider scrambled down the sidewalk, cautiously evading feet.

It really wasn't very intelligent. In fact, it was extremely stupid. But its puny AI mind could handle basic traffic laws, and it waited until it saw the 'walk' sign before scampering across the street with the other foot traffic.

The camera in its helmet tilted around, catching everything that was going on around it. A little girl reached down to pet it, until her mother jerked her away with a frown. She didn't really think the little drone belonged to the Mavericks, but she was wary of it anyway.

The probe paused to tilt itself back, focusing on a well-kept building. It was the public library, a very imposing building built of steel and concrete, with an old-world style. Concrete lions greeted visitors, as they sat on the ledges that framed the stairs.

The little AI continued onward, recording. The city was very neat and clean, and the activity was bustling. Eventually, night fell, and the probe tilted itself up again to see the sky.

Stars.

"Ahhhh." X blew out a stream of smoke, leaning towards the monitor intently. "Paydirt." Axl grinned, slapping Zero on the back, who laughed and tugged on his spiky hair.

"Keep your hands to yourself, kid!" Axl settled back, still grinning. Although…

"If there are Hunters there, I bet the Maverick wars are still going on." Zero observed, and X shrugged.

"I'd rather have bloody warfare than the peace of death." The world really was very, very peaceful right now, at least on a global scale. No wars, no bombings, only quiet desperation as all the leaders of the world organized as many colonization ships as they could and poured funding into faster than light research. It was a bit surprising, really, how many leaders had chosen to remain. Or maybe not. You could call those men many things, but after dealing with the Maverick wars, "coward" was usually not among them.

Their families were gone, though. X knew that a large part of the general population was a bit bitter about that, but he considered it wise. How could a man think clearly when his closest loved ones were still in danger? And it was the cruelest sacrifice, sending them away while you remained, not even knowing if they would reach their destination and survive on an alien world…

X took a quick, hard drag of his cigarette, then stubbed it out. He pulled out a new one, lighting it.

"How many packs are you up to a day?" Zero asked, idly curious. X shrugged.

"I don't bother counting. It's not like it will kill me. Anyway, I'd take Sigma over this shit." He gestured to the window with the lit cigarette. "At least I can fight Sigma, even if he's like a damn vampire, coming back all the time." Axl made a strange, choked giggle at that image.

"Ahem," Gate cleared his throat, interrupting the byplay. "I'm getting closer to making the transition instantaneous. I haven't lost any probes recently, although I still need more. It might be wise to try and reach more dimensions." There were just too many people left on Earth to shovel into any one inhabited dimension. "While this one would be acceptable, an uninhabited one would be ideal."

"A place where intelligent life didn't evolve?" Zero snorted. "You only wish." Axl bent over, rummaging through a bag and pulling out a bag of chocolates.

"Candy?" He offered it to Zero, who took one absently. X shook his head, then looked at Gate.

"How should we tell the general public about this?" That was a critical question. Once people knew about an instantaneous way to escape to places that were guaranteed to be at least minimally habitable… there might be one hell of a riot. X wasn't certain how that would play out, just that it could get gruesome. A lot of the people still on earth were fine people. A lot weren't, too, since the colony ships had only taken people who passed certain requirements. And even fine people might lose it, with escape so close at hand. "We just can't let them all pour into one dimension. What a disaster that would be!" They all considered that for a moment.

"I think," Gate said thoughtfully. "That we should trust the President of the United States with this. He has already proven capable of keeping the whereabouts of colony ships a secret, and defending them when secrets got out." The current president was not beloved to most people. He'd used draconian force to secure the ships, and that had not endeared him to anyone, but X considered it fair. Still…

"Only one country?" he said dubiously. "I don't know… that hardly seems fair."

"Life isn't fair, X." Zero pointed out, and X turned around slightly to glare at him.

"Life isn't a weenie roast, either, Zero. Don't be trite. Oh, alright… I suppose we can trust him to share it with whoever isn't an idiot." Not a rousing endorsement, but it was the best X was going to give anyone. "First, though, we have to make it work. How much more funding do you need? And Axl, how's the bank doing?" Axl looked a little pained at that reference to his girlfriend.

"It's getting kind of dry, X. We're down to the last ten million, if you don't count fixed assets like property." Those kind of fixed assets were worth nothing, under the circumstances. "And I think we might need that ten million to establish ourselves once we get through, you know?" Axl suddenly grinned. "The price of gold is so LOW. We ought to buy a ton of it and take it through with us!" X considered that briefly.

"Gate, can you finish this on five million?" Gate considered the question carefully.

"If I don't buy any more probes, yes. But I need more if I want to research other dimensions." X considered that, then smiled slowly, taking a drag on his cigarette.

"Then I'd say it's time for a bit of presidential assistance… as long as we make the conditions clear." They had been privately funding the enterprise this long because they wanted to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Gate, his technical crew, the Hunters and Axl's girlfriend would be the first ones through. If the project had been publicly funded from the outset, that wouldn't be the case. "Since he'll just be funding the probes, I bet we can swing that. I'll arrange a meeting." The name Rockman X still had enough clout that he could probably get to see the president in less than a week. "Keep up the good work, Gate." Gate nodded, and the monitor blinked off.

"If we're going to start stocking up on gold, we should do it now," Zero said practically. "If we try to buy five million dollars worth of it all at once, people are going to think we're nuts. Or that we have an ace up our sleeves. We need to buy it slowly."

"I'll talk to Tabby about that." Axl volunteered. "She'll get right on it, she's great about that." X nodded. Axl's girlfriend was indeed a model of efficiency when it came to purloining whatever articles they needed.

"Hm… you know, maybe we should put her in charge of getting together all the supplies we'll need. It's more than just gold. She can consult with Alia and start making a list." With her functions as navigator made redundant by the end of the war, Alia had found a slightly different niche as a logistics specialist. "You can help them out with that, too." Axl might not be too helpful, but he occasionally had good ideas and Tabby would like it. Axl grinned.

"Sure thing!" He bounced up, eager to get started. Zero also stood up.

"Want to practice, X?" X frowned… they hadn't been practicing much, lately. There hadn't been any point. Then he thought about it a moment, and slowly nodded.

They could be walking into a war. It behooved them to get back into combat ready shape. In fact…

"Everyone should start practicing again. We need to set up a schedule." He wasn't going to have his Hunters walk into danger with their fangs pulled. By the time the portal was ready, he wanted them to be a lean, mean, killing machine.

Somehow, that thought didn't bother him anymore. X glanced at the window a little sadly.

Being in the shadow of absolute destruction seemed to have a corrupting influence on everyone…


	2. Chapter 2

"Stop squirming, you little…!" X growled, trying to hold onto the Met/spider.

He'd seen the one the rookie had brought in, but hadn't thought much of it. Just an experiment that had somehow wandered off and gotten broken. It hadn't seemed to do anything useful, anyway.

But then he'd spotted another one wandering around downtown, and decided to capture it for study. It had put up a good fight, zigging, zagging and even running under his feet, but he'd finally caught it.

Now it seemed bound and determined to escape, despite his firm grip. X growled, tightening his hands on it and determinedly carrying it down to the lab.

"Lifesaver!" he called. "Can you look at this for me?" The medic frowned, looking up from some reports he was writing.

"What is that thing?" He walked over, examining the AI minutely. "Huh, strange looking. Where did you get it?" X slammed it down onto a table and pinned it there.

"I don't know what it is, and I found it downtown. We found a broken one last week in the HQ… stop that!" He snapped at the drone, which beeped sadly. "Can you turn it off or something?"

"Just a moment." Lifesaver opened a panel on the Met/spider. It took a few moments of exploration, but he finally disabled its movement functions. "There. It's still functional, but it won't give us any trouble. Let me see…" Lifesaver started to try and figure out the machines innards… then jumped back with a yelp as it started smoking. "What the-?"

The miniature explosion that followed didn't damage anything besides the probe, but that was utterly demolished. X and Lifesaver both looked at the wreckage, and X's expression turned grim.

"I'm going to find out what the hell's going on." He didn't like this in the least, littlest bit.

X watched the scouting team assemble.

With the process to get through the dimensions perfected, it was time to go farther than they had before. He wanted a bit more information on this world before everyone went through, though.

The tests with animals had proven that the void had no effect on sanity. The animals couldn't tell them exactly what they had seen, but X suspected he was correct… it was simply too alien to be comprehended, and the mind filtered it out. They wouldn't be experiencing the void for more than a second in any case.

X smiled ruefully as he looked at one particular member of the scouting mission. They'd convinced Colonel to paint his armor in the brighter colors favored by most Reploids, but nothing could convince him to take off his hat. X considered the effect ghastly, but Colonel seemed to find it tolerable. But the way he stood and walked almost screamed "military experience!" If he could have, X would have pulled him from the mission, but Colonel wanted to come.

Repliforce had been disbanded after the third Maverick war, the last war, but a solid core had clung onto their identity like grim death. Colonel had been their leader, and had noticed that despite its official disbanding, the Maverick Hunters were still a functional organization. He had appealed to them and been accepted as a subunit… nominally, he was under X and Zero's command. In actuality, they made respectful requests of Colonel. Repliforce had a long and proud history, so it was better to not antagonize the survivors' sensibilities. There were barely twenty left, in any case.

X's gaze shifted to Colonel's sister, and his smile warmed. Iris had changed her paint job to lime green, and discarded her usual beret. She would fit in well as a civilian Reploid, and from what little training Wraith had been able to give, she had some talent for undercover operations.

The only other scout who gave him concern was Dynamo. Not really a member of the Hunters or Repliforce, he was a mercenary who had chanced upon the information about what Gate had been up to before he joined the Hunters to work on his project. With that knowledge in hand, he'd blackmailed his way into Hunter HQ. X personally couldn't stand him, but he would probably be good as a spy. Wraith had enjoyed teaching him.

"Alright, heads up!" Speaking of Wraith, the short, slim Reploid clapped his hands. His armor had been pure white, but now it was black, except for a few touches of red. An oval crystal of blue was set in his chest, and he wore no helmet, only a headband of black metal. His hair was soft white, falling around his shoulders and framing a very delicate face with large, soulful eyes. He had been a Maverick Hunter with the most perilous of jobs… a spy set into the Mavericks. Only X had been aware of his identity and position before Sigma had left. After that, he had returned to HQ. X could only imagine the courage and daring it had taken for the young Hunter to go into the lair of the beast. The penalties for spying were… well, very ancient and usually involved thumbscrews. Or their high tech equivalent.

Wraith had been an excellent spy, though. His mobile face could assume any expression at need, and his eyes seemed designed to radiate sincerity. Right now he was looking the scouts over with a hard expression that would have done any drill master proud.

"Ready to go, sir!" He turned to X and snapped off a crisp salute. As the only available spy in the unit, he'd been teaching the group the rudiments of his craft for the past month. His opinion of their capabilities was low, but he'd given everyone a grudging pass for a mission in what was basically friendly territory. X returned the salute, then nodded at the rest of the team of ten.

"I don't have to tell you how important a mission this is," he said, then grinned. "So I won't. You all know what you have to do… we're counting on you to do it. Gate?" Gate nodded, and gestured to his own assistants, who started to power up the generator. One by one, each scout walked into the swirling energy, and vanished.

X could only watch, and hope they would be alright…

Colonel glanced around with a small frown. He and Iris were standing in a filthy alley. The disgusting things on the ground were not as disturbing, in his opinion, as what was smeared on one wall. It looked like blood.

The scouts had been sent in pairs to various locations, culled from the data taken from the various probes sent through the portals. He and Iris had been sent to the city that held Maverick Hunter HQ.

"Oh, uck!" Iris grimaced, raising one foot up to get a look at what was smeared on the bottom of it. "Could they have picked a more rancid place to put us?"

"Likely not. But that wasn't the priority." Colonel started out, idly touching the hilt of his saber and trying to remind himself not to act ex-military. Wraith's coaching on how to shed his habitual posture hadn't really helped much. The spy had finally given up in disgust.

Then Iris gasped, and Colonel turned to look at her inquiringly.

"Look, brother! Stars!" It was night, and the alley was dark. Colonel tilted his head back to look into the heavens. He'd never had an unobstructed view of the stars before. When he had been created, the Great Maelstrom had blocked out half the sky.

"Stars…" He touched her shoulder, and for a moment they shared their wonder. Then Colonel shook himself out of his reverie, and gently poked his sister. "Come on. We need to get to work." Their assignment was to get general history on this world and do a casual reconnoiter of Hunter HQ. Since they weren't getting any sensitive information, it was considered a very low risk assignment.

"Libraries won't be open this late," Iris said reasonably. "Should we go to a bar?" Colonel frowned, but… they could pump some of the patrons for information. And if all else failed, it would at least give them local color.

"Very well." As Iris' eyes lit up, he waved a finger at her. "But no getting drunk."

"Party pooper!" She laughed, linking her arm with his. Things were going well.

In a nearby bar, though, someone else wasn't having such a good time.

"God, I miss her." Zero sighed, looking into his drink. He'd come to the bar hoping to hook up, but he just couldn't get images of Iris out of his head, probably because of the girl he had spotted at the bar.

She looked so much like Iris, it hurt. Her hair was pulled back in exactly the same ponytail, and despite the green armor, the resemblance only seemed to get stronger every time he looked. And the guy she was sitting with was a dead ringer for Colonel.

Of course, he couldn't really be Colonel. Zero had seen him explode, completely beyond repair. And Iris had suffered a full system failure. So maybe these two were from the same production line… Reploids were supposed to be individual, but it wouldn't be the first time someone had followed the original designs too slavishly.

The Colonel look-alike finally walked away to get drinks, and Zero decided to introduce himself. He couldn't stand just watching her anymore.

"Hi," he said with a smile as he took a seat beside her. "Mind if I sit here?" Her eyes briefly widened as she looked at him, but that was the normal reaction he got. The warm smile she gave him after made his heart clench.

"No, that's perfectly fine. You're Zero?" She smiled prettily. "I'm Lily."

"Lily…" Zero felt briefly heartsick. Lily, Iris… even the names were so similar. "That's a pretty name. Would you like a drink?"

"My brother's already getting me one," she said with a small laugh. "But you can buy us the next round, if you want."

"Your brother?" He glanced up as the Colonel look-alike came back, carrying too glasses.

"Mmm hmm. This is my brother, Major." Zero blinked… a second related name? It was slightly peculiar. "We were thinking of joining the Maverick Hunters… do you have tours?" Lily said innocently.

"Oh, sure! If you're interested, we have a recruitment office…" He passed several minutes giving them the lowdown on how the Hunters operated for new recruits.

"And what about Repliforce? Are they recruiting?" Lily asked, smiling at him. Zero stared at her, then swallowed heavily.

"Repliforce? They were destroyed years ago…" Both of them stiffened at his words, and Major set his drink down carefully.

"How… I…" Lily blinked, and moistened her lips. "I'm sorry, my creator mentioned them and I had the impression they were current… what happened?" His confusion and shock were obviously genuine. Zero could only assume they had been very sheltered, or maybe newly made, to have not heard about Repliforce.

"They all went Maverick… it's kind of a long story," he said, gulping his drink. "I'd rather not talk about it." Especially not to a girl who looked just like Iris.

In fact, why was he telling them about how to join the Hunters? It was a bit masochistic, really…

"Um… I better get going back to the HQ," he said, standing up. This was just bringing back too many memories. "See you around." Lily smiled again, and waved.

"At the recruitment!"


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, "Lily" and "Major"… better known as Colonel and Iris… went to the library to figure out exactly what Zero had been talking about.

The chance meeting in the bar had been interesting and informative about Hunter HQ. The recruitment day was two days away, and included a full guided tour. But the revelation about Repliforce had stunned them. They were expecting to find the two organizations working together hand in glove, the way they had, briefly, in their own world. Not that one had destroyed the other.

"Doesn't this universe have the jewel chips?" Iris muttered as she scanned through newspaper clippings. The Maverick wars were too recent for history books to be written about them.

"That will be up to Dynamo and Wraith to find out," Colonel replied absently. Jewel chips were an innovation a brilliant programmer had designed. They carried a strange, mutating counter-virus that was programmed to attack the Maverick virus. If a Reploid bearing a jewel chip was infected, the counter virus would be unleashed. It wasn't an ideal solution. The resulting conflict could destroy a Reploid, and even when it didn't they would be out of operation for weeks. And sometimes, the Maverick virus triumphed. Perhaps a quarter of the time, the infected Reploid would go Maverick. But they weren't here to look into that… Dynamo and Wraith had been set the more dangerous task of ferreting out information about Reploid designs and the Mavericks in general.

Colonel sighed to himself. He knew Wraith had judged him to be almost totally incompetent at espionage, which was why they had been set the dull task of looking through library books. He would have been stung by the estimate of his skills if he hadn't known it was true.

"You know, Zero seemed a bit odd around you," Colonel said, changing the subject. "Almost… haunted."

"Really?" Iris looked up at him with a smile. "I thought he was just trying to pick me up. Oh, don't get your tights in a knot!" she said, correctly interpreting Colonel's thunderous frown. "He was the perfect gentleman about it."

"Hrmph… he's not really your type." Colonel snorted. "Speaking of your type, how is Dynamo these days?" Iris laughed, a sweet, tinkling sound.

"Egotistical as always! Or maybe I should say egotesticle? Ack! No lecture!" She held up a hand to forestall a brotherly tirade. "We're not really dating anymore. He's really quite a prick, even if he's cute."

"Gah, ptth." Colonel decided not to pursue the discussion any farther. He really didn't want to know the nuts and bolts of his sister's love life, beyond kicking any man in the pants who was even faintly disrespectful.

It took them a long time to gather up all the information, but they finally had a good picture of all the Maverick wars in their twisted permutations.

"Sigma is very active here… I wonder how the jewel chips will do against him." Iris voiced her thoughts, troubled. The jewel chips hadn't gone up against the real Sigma/Maverick virus in a long time. When Sigma had left, the virus had weakened greatly. It was possible the chips wouldn't be very effective.

"This whole thing with Repliforce blows my mind." Colonel grimaced, touching one article. "I can't believe they destroyed us." Iris shrugged. She didn't really mind the fate of her double. In fact, it was something of a relief that she wouldn't have to worry about meeting herself.

"Well, Repliforce doesn't really exist anymore in our world, either," she said, then smiled at Colonel's hostile glance in her direction. "Come on, brother. Let's be honest. We might still be flying the flag, but we're basically just another unit of hunters. X and Zero are humoring you." Colonel gritted his teeth, but didn't allow himself to be pulled into a debate. Iris could really get on his nerves, sometimes.

"I've been at this long enough," Iris declared, straightening and picking up her notepad. They had both been taking notes on everything. "Let's go get some lunch!" Colonel considered that for a moment, then nodded. Lunch was definitely an appealing idea…

Elsewhere…

"Gads, can you believe this list of prices we have to get?" Micky complained to Bicky, who shrugged.

Micky was human, while Bicky was a Reploid. They'd both been picked for the scouting teams because they were uniquely forgettable. They both had brown hair, brown eyes, and very boring, ordinary faces. The only odd thing about them was how much they resembled each other. It was a bizarre coincidence, since they were human and Reploid, and Micky had been born across the country from where Bicky had been made. And the resemblance wasn't only physical… they had almost identical personalities and worked well as a team.

They were on a pretty simple mission too, but not because they were inept. There just weren't a lot of exciting missions to go around.

"What's a swarovski crystal?" Micky muttered as he perused the list. "Tiffany glass… what in hell?"

"I asked Tabby before we left. She's trying to figure out what stuff to buy for the best returns. She has a line on the next Southeby's auction." Bicky adjusted the backpack he was wearing.

Several nations had decided to raise funds in an interesting way. A certain number of slots on each colony ship went to the highest bidder. That meant that treasures were being constantly sold at fire sale prices, as people tried frantically to raise enough money.

Some nations wouldn't do that, and the USA was one of them. They took people strictly on personal merit and the needed skills. Farmers, biologists, chemists and the like were the prized skills sets.

"We should find an Internet café." Micky said, folding up the list. "I bet we can find this crap on the Internet. And I know we can find the price of gold, platinum and silver there."

"Then we go appraise the jewels." Bicky agreed. His backpack held some loose jewels and jewelry. Bicky had worked out of a satellite HQ in Mexico for most of his life, and he was an expert at bargaining.

They were completely unaware of a pair of off-duty Hunters observing them.

"Is that Micky and Bicky?" A red armored female asked her male companion. Her tone was very dubious. The pair of Reploids she was referring to had gone Maverick just a few months ago, leaving several of their squad critically injured. The thought that they would be openly wandering around in Earthsaver I was almost beyond belief.

"No way." The male finally judged. "That one guy is human." The female's eyes narrowed, and she looked more closely at the man in question. It only took her a moment to decide that her friend was right. Humans moved differently than Reploids, especially burdened by armor. Although this human seemed pretty much indifferent to the weight he was hauling around.

"Huh. That's a strange coincidence." She murmured, and the male shrugged. They left arm in arm, discarding the strangeness from their minds.

Elsewhere, at the same time…

Three girls and one guy had the assignment several sections of the Maverick Hunters considered to be most critical.

They had secured a very posh hotel room, complete with cable internet and unlimited phone lines. They had NO idea who would be paying off their Hunter HQ charge account, but the credit card worked and it was unlikely anyone would notice the expenses for a couple of days. Right now, one of them was surfing the internet while another was putting the phone lines to use. The other two were looking through dozens of pamphlets from a local travel agency.

"…And we'll need eighty-seven rooms." She concluded her order. "For three months from now. The exact date doesn't exactly matter." A short pause. "No, we don't have credit cards for the deposit. We'll be paying in cash." Pause. "Uh huh, I know that's unusual. Don't ask, okay? Can you do it? We'll pay a premium. Right… well, we want the best we can get. Sure." She grimaced and made a negative gesture to one of her friends working on the pamphlets. He nodded, and crossed off a name. "I'll get back to you on that, thanks."

Individually, this group was made up of average Hunters of no particular fame. Collectively, they were the heart and soul of all the parties in HQ. Also known as the Party Planning Committee, and when they were looking for people to help out, as Oh Shit, It's Them. Everyone loved the parties but didn't want to get drafted for the cleaning crew.

"Man, getting a hotel is a pain…" She started dialing up another travel agent. "Hello? I want to book a vacation in Hawaii…"

At the end of the night, they were all tired but pleased.

"Hotel? Check! Restaurants? Check! Biking and volcano exploring trip? Check! Snorkeling and swimming with dolphins trip? Check! Luau dancing? Check!" The male Hunter grinned widely. "My god guys, this is going to be so GOOD!"

"You said it!" With almost unlimited funds at their disposal… the price of gold here was sky high compared to what they were used to… they were taking a shotgun approach to the activities. Creating a chart with the various activities, they had scheduled each one for fifty people. They'd have to pay for fifty, no matter how many showed up. Now they were working on sign up sheets so precisely fifty Hunters could sign up for each activity. With the number of activities available, that would give them a great deal of flexibility in what they wanted to do. And that was only for the first two weeks, which left one final week free. Depending on what activities were popular, they'd try to make more plans for that week. Of course, if some activities weren't popular, they'd be wasting a lot of money. But knowing the Hunters, that wasn't too likely.

"Time for bed, then." One of the girls yawned. "We can get back tomorrow." They had done their work well…


	4. Chapter 4

The portal that opened was larger than any of the others that had come before. It had to be to accommodate the transports they had decided to use. Clearly civilian models, with no insignia or weapons, they each passed uneventfully through the warp.

"X, this shit about no weapons on the transports is really bothering me." Zero complained, and X shrugged, blowing a smoke ring as he watched the operation.

"Totally necessary. We can get away with the hoverbikes, even if they're better'n civilians usually have. But guns in the transports would be a total giveaway. Speaking of hoverbikes, shouldn't you be on yours?"

"Shouldn't you?" Zero bantered back, but went over to get his bike. X took one last drag of his cigarette, and dropped it, crushing it out. Then he went to get his own bike.

Most of the Hunters were riding hoverbikes. They would look like a biker congregation once they got started, but there was no help for it. The transports were laden with the few noncombatants left in the base and enough riches to buy their own small country. The price of gold and everything else had proven to be even more favorable than they had dared hope. One of their more financially minded Hunters had located someone who would handle their hard assets, the gold and jewels, for a cut of the profits. He was also willing to arrange storage for their stuff, and sell it in small drabbles so it wouldn't deflate global prices. Since the arrangement would make him a millionaire, and they had made the price of double crossing them plain, they were pretty sure it would go according to plan. He probably thought they were drug dealers or something, but didn't seem to care. Tabby was going to be handling the sale of all the antiques personally. Gold and jewels had pretty standardized prices, but antiques required a lighter touch.

X glanced over at Axl, and smiled. He and Tabby were exploring each other's tonsils. It was really a disgusting display, but right now, charming in its own way. _Ah, glorious youth!_

Tabby was riding double behind Axl. They had been doing that for almost three years, and Axl could pull the most insane maneuvers with Tabby clinging to him like a burr. X regarded her for a moment. She was the grand-daughter of a billionaire businessman, a man who had amassed an immense fortune. Her father hadn't been as competent, but he'd kept the family fortune from decaying. Tabby's skill was great, but with the coming doom of the world, her opportunities had been limited. Physically, her skin was pale as milk. Her hair was jet black, the natural color. It came from some Hispanic ancestors in her background. Her body was glorious, but strange, and most of it had been paid for. She had suffered from congenital defects that would have kept her from surviving, without cyborg implants. Instead of trying to look more human, she'd gone exactly the other way. Every limb except her right arm was metal, without even the semi-organic sheathing that Reploids used. Her face was very beautiful, with large, soulful eyes, a straight nose, and full red lips. She also had a ton of character, although X was dubious about exactly what kind.

Axl seemed to adore her, though, and she was returning the feeling. X turned his attention back to the transports. They were almost entirely through, so soon the latter half of the Hunters would be joining them. Half the hoverbikes had been sent through first, to make sure the transports were guarded.

When they left, the technicians currently manning the controls would take possession of all the equipment. That had been part of their deal with the President.

X closed his eyes for a moment as he went through the portal. It felt very strange, like a shiver all over his skin and then a wrenching in his gut. But then it was over, and sunlight was suddenly in his eyes.

It was high noon in the other world, and their destination was a vast clearing. One team had been in charge of finding suitable spots for their arrival, and it was fairly near the city holding their new accountant, but far enough away to be undisturbed by random hikers. The clearing gave them more than enough room to park everyone, although leaving it would be a bit of a pain. They might have to use their weapons to clear a track to the nearest highway.

"We're HERE! Yah!" Axl raised a cheer, and soon everyone had joined him. X grinned, and hopped off his hoverbike. Then he went to one of the transports, and kicked himself up the side to stand on the roof.

"Everyone, listen up!" X gestured, catching everyone's attention. Then he started to make a speech. "My friends, my brothers and sisters, my companions through thick and thin! You have stayed with me as I have stayed with you. Together, in the face of adversity, which ended when Sigma left us forever, may he crash into a sun. In the face of absolute destruction where there was no hope. But Gate has lived up to his name and built us a gate. Tonight, look up into the sky and gaze upon the stars, no horror lurks there, no doom. They are there to witness our freedom!" It wasn't the best of speeches, but the cheers he received were thunderous. "Now, let's get started… on our way to Hawaii!" The cheers to that were even louder, if it was possible, and soon the whole caravan was on its way. X grinned as he gunned his hoverbike, pulling out in front.

Whatever happened from here, they had hope.

A week later…

"Mmm." X sighed, taking a drink of his tropical punch. It was in a container shaped like a melon, with a straw and several umbrellas stuck in it.

He was sunbathing on the beach. Almost the entire population of Hunter HQ was there on the beach, enjoying themselves in the water or on the beach. Axl and Tabby were trying to surf, with limited success but a lot of laughter. Zero was busy entertaining three lovely ladies. X wondered if he'd try to score with all three at once. Knowing him, he might even succeed.

Even Gate was letting his hair down, so to speak. The scientist had gotten rid of his armor, and X had been startled to see that his hair was almost as spiky as Axl's. Very blond, though. He was sipping on a melon as well, and reading a book.

X puffed his cigarette, then blinked as a tourist took his picture. Then he shrugged, and waved. The tourist had probably mistaken him for this world's Rockman X. When they had first arrived, they'd done it in full armor and the word had gotten around. X didn't really care. Right now, they weren't causing any problems whatsoever.

With the information on Repliforce and Red Alert, though, he had decided caution was wise. Trying to set up their own organization might be frowned on. Buying their own island to live on, as someone had suggested, could be even worse. Really, hadn't that sort of been what Repliforce had wanted to do?

"Hey, X!" Axl staggered up and started to shake himself off on his commander… until Tabby grabbed his hair and dropped a towel over him. X silently said a prayer of thanks. "Aw, Tabby!" She grinned and tapped his cheek.

"That's not nice, Axl," she said cheerfully, then grinned at X. "But do you want to swim? The water is wonderful!" X considered it, sipping his drink.

"Sure, why not?" he said agreeably, putting down his drink and setting his cigarette in a tray. He stood up smoothly, and stretched. He was wearing spandex swim trunks that left nothing to the imagination, and had no shame at all about it. One of the girls around Zero was momentarily diverted by the sight.

"Last one in is a rotten egg!" Axl took off running, and Tabby followed with a laugh. X grinned, and concentrated on outdistancing them both.

Elsewhere, a few days later…

"Hey, X, have you seen this?" Zero was looking over a tabloid newspaper. One of the Hunters had left it on a table.

"Hm?" X frowned as saw the newspaper. "Zero, why are you reading that trash?" Zero just shrugged, and passed it over to him. "Huh?" X blinked as he looked at the pictures. "I'm not in Hawaii!"

"Neither am I. I wish I was, though," Zero sighed at the thought. "Sure does look like us, though, doesn't it?" X frowned at the picture. It really did look like them… in this particular picture, he and Zero were playing a beach volleyball game. X blinked as he recognized several of the other faces in the picture.

"Maybe it's an old picture…" he said uncertainly. He couldn't remember ever playing beach volleyball with Zero and several other Hunters, but it maybe he'd forgotten.

"The other pictures too, though? Turn the page." With a sinking feeling, X turned the page.

There was a full color spread of photos. Axl on a waterski, with a beautiful cyborg girl clinging to his back. Zero trying to catch a fish and getting the hook tangled in his hair. Dynamo… Dynamo?... kissing a girl who looked strangely like Iris. A man in civilian clothes with a navy cap who looked strangely like Colonel doing the luau with Axl and the girl… X on a beach chair, sipping from a melon and smoking a cigarette…

It looked like they were all having a wonderful time. X just wished he was there to experience it.

"I KNOW I've never smoked." X set the newspaper down with a frown. "Maybe we should go talk to Signas… I think we should investigate this." Zero grinned.

"He'll think we're trying to wrangle a vacation, but yeah." Zero gazed down at the picture of Iris with Dynamo and almost seemed… jealous. "I want to know what Lily's doing with him." X blinked.

"Lily? You know that girl?" He frowned. "She looks just like Iris." He didn't think Zero getting involved with a girl who looked just like Iris was at all healthy. Zero shrugged, a bit uncomfortably. He knew it was abnormal, but he was still interested.

"Yeah, I met her at a bar and she came to that recruitment campaign we had. Haven't heard from her since, though, and I'd swear that's her." Zero stood up fluidly. "Well, let's go." He wanted to get started investigating. And see a few luau dancers…

There was no reason not to combine work with pleasure.


	5. Chapter 5

Getting an interview with the publisher of the scandal rag they had been reading turned out to be easier than they had expected. He was expecting them.

"Figured you might stop by." The publisher in question was a big man, as tall as Zero and quite a bit wider. His hair was pale, almost colorless and cut into an unflattering buzz cut. His eyes were an equally colorless blue, and he was dressed in office casual. Just as well, in X's opinion. Putting him in a suit would have made him look like a gorilla dressing up. "It would be about that article on you, and the pictures?" It was hardly a question, but they answered anyway.

"Yes," Zero said, leaning forward. "Who are those guys? And where did you photograph them?" The publisher shrugged, and drew out a folder of photos.

"Who? Your guess is as good as mine. The tourists swear half the Hunter HQ is having a holiday in Hawaii, and I sent a few of my own reporters to confirm it. My own reporter estimated there was maybe a hundred and twenty of 'em. It wasn't easy to count." That wasn't nearly the whole HQ, but it was a sizeable fraction. X frowned, and opened the folder to look at the pictures.

He could see why some of them hadn't made it to the newspaper. They had obviously been taken by someone who had scant respect for privacy laws. There were only two sets of those, though. X winced as he looked away from the first set. He'd always known Gate was gay, but he really didn't want to look at the evidence.

The other set, though, was…

"Holy- gimme that!" Zero snatched away one of the photographs. "Damn, I can't believe I missed this… Hey, look at that one, you're in it!" X blushed a flaming red as he saw the damning evidence. Apparently, he and Zero had participated in an orgy with no less than three women. Worse yet, they both seemed to be bisexual. X shuddered as he thought about what would happen if these photos hit the general public. "Decadent" was the kindest word he could think of to describe it.

"I can't believe I missed all this. Damn. I'm going to Hawaii…" Zero mumbled to himself as he looked over all the photographs. X ignored him, focusing a glare on the publisher.

"You aren't thinking of publishing them, are you?" he said suspiciously. The publisher shook his head.

"No way. Those photos are illegal, and besides, this isn't a porno rag. You can have 'em. The negatives are in the red bag." X picked up a little red paper bag. There was a black bag too, but he assumed that held the non-dirty photos. "And they're staying at the Hyatt Regency, on Maui. Rented almost a hundred rooms for a month with an option to extend the stay for another month, according to the staff." X blanched at the thought of how much such a thing would cost. Then he looked down at the pictures, and frowned, mentally adding the cost for fishing trips, volcano tours, water skiing… Then he shook his head. They had the information they needed and a bit extra.

"Thank you for seeing us." X said politely, gathering up the pornographic photos and picking up the red packet. The publisher waved his thanks away.

"It's nothing. Always willing to help out the Hunters." X smiled politely, shook his hand, and started out. Trying hard to ignore Zero, who had stolen a photo and was making some remarks about the positions involved.

This was going to be a long trip.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii…

The Hunters were not the only ones interested in the strange reports coming from Maui. And someone had been dispatched to investigate. Unfortunately, the Hunters of the other world were a bit out of practice. Physically, their skills were excellent, honed by countless police actions and minor outbursts of Maverick activity. But it had been a long time since they had faced Sigma, and longer since they had really had to worry about security.

That was about to cost one person a bit of pain.

Dynamo was bored as he walked through the palm trees. Extremely bored. He'd swum, played water polo, even dozed off on the beach. He'd visited a casino and blown a bit of his savings. Now it was evening and he couldn't think of a thing to do. Iris had gone off on a field trip to a Hawaiian history museum. Most of the Hunters were about as interested in history and culture as they in the methods of producing yogurt (which was where they got most of their culture) but a group of almost thirty had gone along anyway. Dynamo was beginning to wish he'd joined them. At least then he could have flirted with Iris, or if that failed, an attractive tour guide. Although he would have had to put on more clothes for that… right now, he was wearing shorts and nothing else.

He finally settled down in the shade of a palm tree. The grass was soft and the ground was nice and flat. Maybe he'd just catch a few z's here, until Iris got back. Yeah, that was the ticket. Then he could see if she was up for supper and bar hopping. He didn't love her, or at least he didn't think so, but he certainly liked her more than most of the girls he'd dated. She was sweet but had an edge. Sort of like one of those gumballs he'd had once, the ones with the sweet outside and the red-hot center.

"Heh, that's a better description of her in the bedroom…" The blue haired mercenary daydreamed about that for a while, then slipped into a light doze. A doze that the unexpected sound of metal on metal shattered.

Dynamo sat bolt upright instantly, but that turned out to be very counterproductive. Instead of a boot to the chest to hold him down, he took it to the head.

When the world stopped revolving, he became aware of a foot on his chest and a very familiar face looking down at him. He saw it in the mirror every day. And his double was looking pissed.

Dynamo could guess why. The thought running through his mind would not be "alternate world doubles hey interesting," it'd be more along the lines of, "who the hell copied me those bastards." He'd be pissed off too, if someone tried to imitate his glory. But unlike his double, he knew they were both the real deal.

"Let me guess. You had a date with Sigma and he stood you up." Dynamo asked idly, risking another kick to the head. Which landed hard. "Ow!" Three more Mavericks came up behind his double. Shit. If he could just get away for a moment and call up his armor, he'd have a fighting chance. To get his ass kicked, but it was better than lying down and taking it. And running like hell was always an option.

"Let me guess. You're retarded," his double said pleasantly. "Now, how about you tell us who made you and what you're doing here with X and his merry crew?" Dynamo smiled back just as pleasantly.

"How about I spit in your face?" Dynamo didn't really have much loyalty to the Hunters, but he knew himself, and he doubted his life would be worth a used Kleenex once his double got the information he wanted. Dynamo inched one of his hands down, towards the pockets in his shorts.

Iris had a bit of a paranoid streak, with a hefty amount of caring thrown in to make a person guilty. For a while, he'd wondered how she was finding him all the time. Then he'd found her "love bug" and had been somewhere between amused and appalled. After a confrontation about it, they'd agreed not to plant homing devices on each other. But he had a larger version that he kept on him most of the time, just in case she needed him for something. Or he needed her.

Now looked like a really good time for a big, fat SOS. One of the Mavericks kicked him in the stomach, and as he curled up in pain he grabbed the bug and squeezed it, hard.

No one would detect the signal but Iris.

Elsewhere…

"Ohh, this is interesting." Iris chewed on her thumb as she read a plaque. The display case contained several native Hawaiian artifacts. The information on the plaque was very interesting and included a lot of information about the Hawaiian gods and goddesses. Colonel was looking at ancient weapons and remarking on the sharp edge of the obsidian spears to another Hunter.

Iris shrieked, making everyone jump as feedback hit her.

"Dynamo!" Iris gasped, and immediately co-ordinates flashed through her mind. Dynamo had activated the distress signal, and he was near the beach. She ran to her brother, grabbing his arm. "Colonel! Dynamo's in trouble at-" She quickly rattled off the co-ordinates. Colonel nodded, then shouted for a few members of his team, who ran over quickly. She teleported with them as they left, although they wouldn't need her help very much.

"If you tell me, I'll let you go," The real world Dynamo said reasonably to his duplicate. The alternate version just snorted.

"You're a liiii-ar." He said in a sing-song tone, then grinned. "And… you're de-ead."

"What in hell do you-AUGH!" Colonel and his team burst on the scene in multiple flashes of light and someone blasted the real Dynamo in the back. Soon, the Mavericks were in a battle for their lives. Dynamo jumped to his feet like a spring toy, calling up his armor and tackling his double.

The battle continued until the Mavericks were scrap and Dynamo had fled. That really didn't take very long, although the alternate Dynamo did all he could to keep his double from escaping.

"Damn." He said in disgust, looking at the spot his double had teleported away from. "Am I always so good at running away?" Colonel snorted, and Iris giggled.

"Yes," Colonel said flatly, sheathing his sword. "It's your greatest skill."

"Thanks, I think?" Dynamo frowned, and glanced around for Iris. "Iris, thanks for that love bug. I'd never have made it without it." He was really very grateful. Iris smiled, and walked over, touching his cheek.

"Aw, that's sweet, Dyna-baby." Iris leaned up to give him a peck on the cheek-

"WHAT is going on here?" An affronted voice interrupted them, and everyone turned to see an annoyed Zero and a weirded out X looking at them… and the remains of the Mavericks scattered around.

"Sir!" Colonel saluted them crisply. "Three Mavericks terminated, one selfish bastard escaped."

"Hey!" Dynamo protested, and was silenced by a kiss. "Mrph…"

"Can you two get a room?" Colonel snapped, then blinked as Zero growled. "Sir?"

"Um, who are you?" X asked before Zero could start maiming a certain bounty hunter. There was a shocked silence, and one of the other Repliforce members finally put their thoughts into words.

"Oh, hell! It's this world's X and Zero!"


	6. Chapter 6

"…And that's how we got here." X finished the story, taking a deep drag from his cigarette.

He and Zero had been at the museum, but had headed back as soon as Colonel had given them the news about the attack on Dynamo and their double's appearance. Now they were giving their doubles the lowdown on everything. X was looking like he wanted to disbelieve their story, but it was impossible. The Mavericks couldn't possibly have created copies of so many Hunters… or created the plans for the gate. Those were on a screen as they spoke.

"Uh, I see." X glanced at Zero and immediately gave up on him. He was looking at Iris longingly. She was sitting beside Colonel, and occasionally met Zero's gaze, giving him a friendly smile. That made Zero drop his eyes… until she looked away. X sighed to himself. Zero's conflicting emotions were making him act very strangely. "So… now that you're here, what do you plan to do?"

"Well, we have some options. We were thinking of joining the Hunters, though, if you'll have us." X shrugged, then grinned. "It'll be good to be fighting Sigma again."

"Good?" X was aghast that anyone could say that, let alone a double of himself. "You think fighting is GOOD?" His double gave him a sharp look, then blew out a smoke ring.

"Compared to dying by inches in peace? Oh yeah." He gazed away blankly, thinking about the past. "There's nothing worse than just being helpless. It's like acid on the soul, looking up into a horror and knowing there's nothing you can do about it, nothing at all… That must be how civilians feel in the wars. So helpless…" X blinked, then his tone turned brisk. "So don't bitch to me about Sigma. If it meant my world would live, I'd fight Sigma and let him beat the crap out of me on alternate Tuesdays."

The real X stared at his double. Everything about his double was strange… he smoked, he swore, and he didn't seem to care about fighting at all. X wasn't sure what to make of it. But…

"If you want to join the Hunters, I'm sure we can work something out." The Hunters could always use more people. "How do you want to do this?"

Later, on the beach…

Iris walked slowly down the beach, looking up at the stars.

The sight gave her immense pleasure. The stars were so much clearer on the beach of Hawaii than in Earthsaver I. She knew nothing about astronomy and could name none of them, but after all the years of staring into the void, just knowing they were there was a joy.

She turned slightly as she heard a footstep behind her, tensing. X had given them all a lecture about being more alert for Mavericks.

But this was no Maverick, and Iris smiled as she saw the long blond hair blowing in the breeze.

She'd never been at all interested in her world's Zero. She knew herself, and knew she had a very wide jealous streak. The way Zero could flirt with a dozen women and not mean anything by it had repulsed her. So did the way he slept with more than one at once. She had slept with plenty of men, mostly to feel alive and forget the death of the planet, but she made it a policy to only sleep with one person at a time. Iris did not do orgies.

She suspected this Zero was very different, though. He had loved her double, killed her, and been left emotionally scarred by the experience. It only seemed right to try to help him cope.

"Hello, Zero," she said with an open, welcoming smile. "Are you here to gaze at the stars too?" He glanced up at the stars for a moment, then looked back at her.

"No… I was looking for you." He stepped closer to her, and Iris had to resist the urge to step back. There was such a raw expression on his face… "Lily… Iris… do you know…" He reached out to touch her shoulder, and she gently took his hand.

"About what happened between you and my double? Yes," she said softly. "Colonel and I found out when we were looking up the history of Repliforce. You don't have to tell me." She was sure that was what he had been gearing up to do. Zero looked a little relieved, but only a little.

"Iris… will you forgive me?" He asked in a choked voice. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that she wasn't the one he should be begging forgiveness from. After a bout of misplaced compassion when she was young, Colonel had harshly instructed her on the rules of forgiveness. You could not forgive something for someone else without being utterly insulting to the injured party. It was up to that person to forgive, no one else.

But her double was dead and couldn't say the words. And Zero was looking at her like his heart was ready to break.

"I forgive you," she said, drawing him into an embrace. "You did what you had to do, Zero, and I forgive you for it." Zero clung to her for a long moment, a few hot tears sliding unnoticed into her hair.

Then the moment was broken by several female voices. They quickly let go, and turned to look at the group of cute young tourists walking down the beach.

"…And he got all upset I wouldn't do it, saying, "If you loved me you would" and stuff."

"Ahh! What did you say?"

"That I love my lipstick more."

"Oh, hey Zero!" One waved, and soon they all were. Zero looked slightly baffled, but waved back as the group continued on their way, chattering nonstop about boyfriends and lipstick.

"Do I know those girls?" Zero wondered aloud as they got out of earshot, and Iris snickered.

"Your double does," she said dryly. "Intimately."

"Yech." Zero suddenly turned to her, taking her hand with a dazzling smile. "Would you like to go down to the Cabana? I hear a great band is playing tonight." Iris considered that briefly, then smiled.

"I would love it." Zero was extremely handsome, and this new version seemed to be more… restrained than the one she was used to. It was worth getting to know him, at least. Whether it would work out in the end was anyone's guess, but she thought it had some potential.

They left the beach arm in arm, unaware of someone watching them…

The next morning…

"X, can I talk to you?" X sighed, tempted to say no. He'd just gotten started on some of the truly bizarre paperwork his double had dredged up that apparently would notify everyone in the world of their presence, nature, and would make them a satellite of the official Maverick Hunters. X was tempted to put their HQ in Hawaii, and wondered if he could get away with it. They'd have to do a lot of teleporting, but didn't they always?

"What is it, Axl?" He asked wearily, then frowned. Axl seemed genuinely distressed.

"It's Tabby, can you please talk to her? She wants to be a Maverick Hunter and Zero's egging her on." X scowled, making a mental note to smack Zero upside the head. The red hunter obviously wasn't thinking and neither was Axl, from the expression on his face. He just didn't want his girlfriend to get killed. X had no personal feelings on the subject, but he did have plans for Tabby that did not involve weapons of any kind.

"Where is she now?" He asked, standing up.

"Down in the café, drinking some coffee," Axl answered, looking relieved. He'd tried to oppose Tabby's desire in a gentle way, knowing that she'd ignore any arguments based on "but I love you and don't want you to die." It hadn't been easy to find anything beyond that, though. X wasn't emotionally involved, so hopefully he'd come up with something rational that Tabby would listen to.

X walked to the elevator, taking it down to the main floor. It was a short walk to the café after that. He could have found it blindfolded, the aroma of freshly made coffee was so strong.

It was easy to find Tabby. She was sulking and drinking an extra large frappuchino, with three different pastries on the table. Judging from the half eaten states of all three and the fact that Tabby rarely ate anything fattening, X guessed that Axl had left then behind to go look for him. Which meant he was going to be talking to her on the heels of a mini-lover's spat.

Wonderful.

"Tabby," X said, deciding to approach the problem directly. He sat down across from her, pushing away a plate. "Axl tells me you want to be a Hunter?" Tabby fixed him with a mulish expression, the implants in her eyes glittering like tiny jewels.

"Yes, I do," she said rebelliously. "And don't tell me I'm not good enough. Zero's been teaching me." X made a mental note to smack Zero HARD, then spoke calmly.

"That's not it, Tabby. I'm sure you would make an excellent Hunter," actually, he wasn't, but flattery could only help. "But we have plenty of excellent Hunters. I was hoping you would be our CFO." Tabby's eyes widened slightly.

"Chief Financial Officer? What do we need one of those for? We're joining this world's Hunters, aren't we?" she said, confused. X shrugged, resisting the urge to light a cigarette. The café was non-smoking.

"Yes, but we're not giving them all our assets. It's ours, not theirs." His voice turned slightly dry. "After all, their getting a free satellite HQ and over a hundred experienced Hunters. I don't think they need a billion dollars in gold, platinum, jewels and antiques as well."

"Oh… I see." Tabby frowned, obviously thinking about it. "The HQ will be expensive but it couldn't possibly go over twenty million, even in Hawaii… well, maybe it could with the land prices. But still… if we can get them to accept the eggs…" X nodded at that thought. Tabby had taken a chance and bought several Imperial Faberge eggs from the last Southeby's auction. Real ones, made out of gold and gems, presented to the Russian family. Russia had been one of the first countries to face the music when it came to the world's fate, and had quietly sold its national treasures to collectors before the value could go down. Of course, the problem with that in this world was that each egg was one of a kind and in Russian museums. Now that they were being legitimized, though, the eggs pedigrees might also be accepted. They did come with letters of authenticity from their world's Russian government. "Not to mention the artwork… So you want me to invest the money? Run our portfolio?" Tabby blew out a breath as X nodded. "X… I think you might be seriously overestimating me. I'm a rich kid. I inherited a lot of cash and some pretty good helpers. I mean, I'm not BAD, but I don't think I'm some kind of genius either."

"You're still better than the rest of us," X pointed out. "The financial world is a deep and dark mystery to me. After you, the best we have is Klondike." Tabby looked slightly disbelieving.

"Klondike? Isn't he the guy who got caught selling supplies to the black market once?"

"That's the one." X grimaced. "Tabby, I know you're not a genius, but you're forgetting something. All those able helpers you had before should be alive here. Or at least some of them. Maybe you can find them and get them to work for you again." Tabby blinked, then nodded slowly.

"Yeah, you're right." She suddenly grinned. It was like the sun coming out after a cloudy day. "Alright, X, I'll be your CFO!" She reached over to shake his hand and- "Oh, yuck. Tell Axl to get back down here and finish his stupid cheesecake." Tabby scowled, trying to wipe the chocolate that had accidentally smeared her sleeve. X laughed, standing up.

"Meet me this evening so we can discuss setting up the new HQ."


	7. Chapter 7

X glowered at the plans he and Tabby had drawn up. They were sitting at a café by the Hawaiian beach, shaded by the palm trees. The sky was a beautiful cerulean blue, and they were sitting underneath a red and white striped sun canopy. Tabby was sipping a Hawaiian punch drink, and giving X a quizzical look.

"What's wrong, X?" She could tell something was making him unhappy, but she wasn't sure what. The plans looked pretty good to her. She had worked with the Planning Committee to find a really good construction firm with a long, honorable history that could create the new Hunter HQ. She'd also found a good site for it and had seen the real estate people about acquiring the property.

But nothing happened overnight, and throwing up the building would take at least six months. And that was when she was paying a premium for speed. It just couldn't be done any faster than that, which meant they needed to find a place to stay for six months. Even with their money, staying at the hotel was prohibitively expensive. They'd gotten a deal on bulk for these two months, and it was the off season for tourism, but soon people would be starting their winter Hawaiian vacations. The hotel would charge them an arm and a leg, if they even had that many rooms unreserved, which was doubtful.

So Tabby had come up with an idea, and okayed it with the real X. And it was giving the alternate X hives.

"It's this stuff about staying in the main Hunter HQ." X tapped away some ash from his cigarette, frowning. "I just… have a feeling that isn't going to work out too well."

"A premonition of doom?" Tabby said with a grin, then sobered as X shot her a look. "Sorry. But what can go wrong? We're going to be Hunters, and those people are US."

"That's exactly what I don't like," X said quietly, taking a sip of his punch. "We've had decades to get used to the idea of meeting ourselves. It doesn't bother any of us… but we've just shoved it on them. Remember what Dynamo said about how his double probably felt about having a copy?"

"Yes, but that's Dynamo." Tabby snorted. "He thinks he's the centre of the known universe." X smiled slightly… that was very true. "And even if they don't like it, so what? We're going to be staying here, and we'll have to work with them. Shouldn't they get used to it now?"

"Mmm." X took a drag on his cigarette, and admitted to himself that Tabby had a point. Still… "I hate walking into trouble." He frowned. "And how does the main HQ have enough rooms free, anyway?" Tabby grimaced.

"Well… the last war. They lost a lot of people. Still, a lot of us will have to share." X and Tabby shared a smile. With all the couples in their party, that wouldn't be a problem… a good ten rooms at the hotel were often left unused. They had rented them anyway just in case a few relationships broke up, and they made convenient gathering places for movies and other entertainments.

"Do we have any contingency plans if it goes sour?" X asked, and Tabby frowned, pulling out a brochure.

"The best I could come up with is a field we can rent for camping… they can accommodate large groups, and they have toilets and showers. It's up near the Rocky Mountains. We'll have to rent tents and stuff, though. Still, it should be a lot cheaper than staying here." She passed the brochure over to him, and X studied the pictures. It wasn't a very good brochure and the campsites didn't look that great, either. A low budget trip to the Rockies, by all appearances, but the meadows should give them enough space to practice. In Hawaii, they'd rented a vacant lot for that purpose.

"Alright. We'll give it one month at the Hunter HQ, and then make an evaluation on how it's going." X grimaced to himself. Despite all the arguments in favor of it, he had a very bad feeling about this…

A week later…

"And the flies of Texas are upon you…" Micky sang, softly but distinctly off key as he and Bicky got off the transport.

"Geez, Micky, if you can't hit the notes could you at least scare them going by?" Bicky shouldered his backpack, looking around. "Hey, it's just like ours was. Sweet!" The main Maverick Hunter HQ was almost painfully familiar, an echo of better times. By the time they had left their own world, all the outlying buildings had been falling apart from neglect. Only the core of the building had been maintained. Here, everything was in excellent condition, as their HQ had been during the wars with Sigma.

"Yeah, cool," Micky agreed. "I wonder if the cafeteria food sucks the same? Ow!" One of the chefs had been coming out behind him, and smacked him on the head with a spoon. "Sorry, Maria. I didn't mean YOUR cooking."

"You better not!" She snorted, but looked satisfied and concentrated on chivvying out her young children. Not many of the support personnel had stayed once the situation started to deteriorate, but Maria had stuck it out. She had gone from being a kitchen assistant to the manager of the kitchen, and once she had found out about Gate's project, she had brought in the rest of her family to manage almost everything else. By now, the Hunters couldn't imagine surviving without her and her clan.

"We're in… um…" Micky consulted a crumpled piece of paper. "H3-22. Rookie wing, ain't that a thing?" Bicky shrugged.

"Wherever they've got space." The two Hunters walked through the familiar halls, making their way to their new rooms. For a while, they admired the cleanly finished metal floors, the off white paint on the walls. It had all been in disrepair in their world, a victim of cutbacks. But eventually… "Um, Micky?"

"Gotcha Bic." Micky said softly, tensing slightly. They were catching a lot of hostile looks. Especially from some very familiar people. Micky and Bicky had no idea why, but it was strange and uncomfortable.

The situation came to a head when five Hunters moved to confront them.

"I can't believe you Mavericks would come back here…" One of them growled, and the pair of Hunters exchanged a look.

"We're not Mavericks," Bicky said mildly. "We're from another world. Surely you've heard?" He casually shifted his weight, and to a stranger it wouldn't have looked ominous, but Micky knew the signs. His best friend was ready for action.

"Yeah, right! That's such a story." A female Hunter chimed in. Micky recognized her from their world… she'd left the Hunters a long time ago, though. He couldn't recall her name. "I think this is some kind of trick of Sigma's. You might get around X, and that stupid Iris copy could get around Zero, but you won't get around US!" That made Micky and Bicky scowl simultaneously. Not at the doubt about their story, but the disrespect to X and Zero.

"Excuse ME." Micky said, extremely offended. "Do you people have freaking EYES? Have you noticed I'm human?" That silenced the female a moment, but she rallied all too soon.

"Just another trick!" She insisted, although one of her supporters stepped back, looking uneasy. One of the others, a large male, stepped forward to shove Bicky's shoulder-

And was met with a sizzling whip across the chest. Micky swore, and dodged a punch, pulling out his own whip.

"I HATE fistfights with Reploids!" In a real battle, he would have tried to get some distance and hit them with his guns. In this one, he couldn't do that without killing someone, and Micky didn't want to go that far. He slapped someone across the legs with his neural whip, and yelped as someone punched him in the chest, silently thanking God that he'd never taken off his armor.

They were outnumbered, but they were good at teamwork. They had a fighting chance.

Elsewhere, in the lounge…

"I was wondering if you could explain some things to me?" X said politely to his double. He was trying very hard to treat his double like an entirely new person, and not fall into the disapproving mindset he'd been in earlier. It wasn't easy. His double was smoking again, and drinking a glass of orange juice laced with vodka.

"Sure, if you want." The alternate X was looking at something else, though, and X followed his gaze… then blushed. Zero was necking with a young rookie Hunter on one of the couches. X spat into his ashtray, a gesture that eloquently expressed his disgust and completely appalled his double. "He's such a puta."

"A… what?" The original X said, staring at the ashtray. Spitting was another thing he would never, ever do.

"A whore." X sighed, taking a deep drag from his cigarette. "Would you believe he's slowing down? Only three orgies since we came here."

"You're joking, right?" The original X paled as his double gave him a level look. "You're NOT joking?"

"I only wish," X said, then shrugged. "He wasn't always like this. It's life-reaffirming behavior. We've all got it, to some degree."

"Life-reaffirming behavior?" X leaned forward, interested. "What's that?" He was genuinely curious, wondering what his double meant. He'd never heard that term before.

"Mmm… well, when I first noticed Zero getting so slutty, and some of the others picking up bad habits, I asked a councilor to come and have some talks with everyone, try to figure out what was wrong." X smiled faintly, remembering. "That was before I started smoking. She talked to everyone, then told me they were just reacting to the stress."

"We've fought almost ten wars and more missions than I can count. Stress?" X frowned at the implication that this world's Hunters weren't under stress. His double waved that away, and X winced as the other X sprinkled ash across the couch.

"That's a different kind of stress. And I bet it generates some of the same behavior, you just don't see it because Hunter HQ is so damn big here. But watching your world die by inches and not being able to do anything… that's serious, long term stress. Then add onto it police actions and riot control duties and you have some serious, nasty stress." The alternate X savagely stubbed out his cigarette, then drew out a new one. "After the army called us in is when I started to smoke. Have you ever killed a human before?"

"Of course not!" X said, shocked by the very question… then he gave his double a long look. "You have." It wasn't a question, but his double answered anyway.

"I don't know. I just don't know, and I think that's what bothers me the most… I ought to know if I killed someone. But riot control is just so confusing," X said softly, staring at nothing as he smoked his cigarette. "Even more confusing than a battlefield. The news about the black hole got out by accident… it was horrible, massive unrest, food riots, crackpot religions, you name it. Stupid, the damned thing wasn't going to affect us for almost fifty years but people were still so desperate… all I know is that I had blood on my armor when the first one was over. It seemed like there was always blood on my armor when we got done one of those…" He blinked rapidly several times, and then his tone turned brisk. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be putting this on you. It's my problem to deal with."

"That's alright," X said softly, reaching out to take his double's free hand. The alternate X looked over at him, surprised by the contact. "I can't pretend I know how you feel… I don't, I wasn't there. But I need to know these things. I need to know about you, your people, everything you've been through so I can bring us together as a whole."

"Thank you…" The alternate X smiled, and gave his double's hand a squeeze. They might not get along in a lot of ways, and they might have very different values, but his double had his heart in the right place.

_Kzzt__… Commander X, Signas would like to see you in the infirmary. And is your double there? _X blinked, touching his helmet in an unconscious gesture as he heard Alia speak over his communicator.

"Yes, he is… why?"

_Signas__ would like to see him as well. There's a problem._ X relayed that message to his double, who grimaced and took one last drag from his cigarette.

"Already? Wonderful." X stubbed out his cigarette, then stood up with a sigh. "Let's see what's gone wrong."

It didn't take them long at all to find out. Micky was lying on an infirmary bed, mercifully unconscious. X's eyes narrowed as he took in the human's injuries. His left arm had to be broken in at least three places, and it looked like someone had beaten on his armor with a sledgehammer. Even with quick healing nanites injected into his blood, along with a powerpack implant to keep them charged, it would take months for his arm to heal.

Bicky, on the other hand, was conscious and swearing. He calmed down a little as the two X's entered the room.

"Sir! Permission to kill the bitch!" He gestured sharply at another unconscious Reploid. It looked like someone had wrapped a neural whip around her throat and attempted to throttle her. Micky?

"Permission denied. What happened here, Bicky?" X said coolly as his double questioned his own Reploids, Signas listening to both sides. He didn't look at all happy.

But with their leader unconscious, the other Hunters didn't have the cohesion to think of a good story. And they were naturally inclined towards the truth in any case. But they did try to justify it with their original logic.

"So, essentially, you disobeyed a direct order and attacked your fellow Hunters." Signas summed the situation up coldly, making the Hunters wilt. They hadn't thought about it in quite those terms.

"But they're Mavericks!" One of them protested. "They nearly killed Tamask!"

"They are from another world." X emphasized his words, as if he was speaking to an absolute idiot. Which he was, really. "They are not Mavericks, you idiot!" X glowered at them. They were all from his own unit. "You're all suspended until further notice." He turned to his double. "I'm very sorry about this." The alternate X frowned, and finally shrugged, pulling out another cigarette.

"I'm not really surprised. This probably won't be the last problem we have." If it was, X would be glad the damage had been so minimal.

He wasn't willing to bet on it, though.


	8. Chapter 8

"Fascinating." Lifesaver was examining a chip, holding it in a pair of tweezers. It was perhaps the size of his thumb, and gleamed with purple, green, and dark blue colors as he turned it in the light. Much larger than a computer chip, it held an extremely potent microcomputer.

The jewel chips had been named on the basis of their appearance. That appearance, however, was a marketing tool. The simple titanium casing was treated in various ways to create a glossy, jewel-like coating that held unique patterns for each chip, usually consisting of three complimenting colors. The one Lifesaver was holding looked like a fire topaz, dark but lovely. The appearance was completely unnecessary for the chips to complete their function, but it had made the commercials featuring them more interesting. Lifesaver looked at the exposed circuits on Axl's chest, and started inserting the chip.

"That tickles." Axl suddenly yipped. "Ow! Lifesaver!"

"Hush," Lifesaver murmured, glancing at Axl's double who was watching, interested. His chest was also exposed, revealing his own jewel chip… an iridescent green chip that looked like the back of an insect's wing. Lifesaver had carefully examined the differences between the two Axl's, and had decided to keep the second open for reference as he worked on the first.

"There." Lifesaver finished installing the jewel chip, and picked up a scanner to test it. That was a piece of foreign technology as well, specifically designed to test the activity of a jewel chip by mimicking the threat routines of the Maverick virus. He connected it to Axl's ports, and nodded as the scanner registered the appropriate activity. "It's working, good." Then he started closing Axl back up. The second Axl waited impatiently, and sighed as Lifesaver finally got to him.

"Lord, that was dull." The real Axl complained as he sat up. Then he grinned at his double. "Hey, want to go watch a movie? I have Constantine."

"Sounds good, but let's go get Tabby first." The two Axl's were getting along very well, and both getting along with Tabby. It was making a lot of people very nervous. Tabby sometimes acted as the voice of reason for her Axl, but sometimes took an unholy glee in egging him on.

"Whatever. Just take it out of my infirmary." Lifesaver didn't trust the two of them at all, but of all the alternate Hunters, Axl's design had proven to be closest to the real thing. Strangely, the real version needed very little work to make his wiring suitable for the jewel chips. Almost everyone else would need extensive refitting. Fortunately, most of their doubles had been refitted so Lifesaver already had a blueprint to work from.

The chips themselves had been extensively examined by the research staff, who had gone into rhapsodies over the mutating counter-virus. Many of them had reservations about the person who had created it, and perhaps even its ultimate purpose, but none of them had any about its effectiveness. The jewel chips were not the first line of defense against Maverick infection. They only activated after all the other firewalls and fail safes had failed, because of their side-effects… they turned the Reploid body into a battlefield for dominance. The researchers thought that the chips probably wouldn't be as effective against the active Sigma virus as they had been against the weakened version on the other world, but they still thought there would be a fifty percent success rate. That was much better than the zero chance Reploids currently had when the last defense was breached.

The two Axl's both scampered out of the infirmary, and Lifesaver shook his head, reaching for another jewel chip. Installing them all would take a long time and work, but in the end it would be worth it.

A little while later, the real X happened to glance into the lounge and stopped, seeing something a little peculiar.

"Axl?" He stepped in, and two heads turned to look at him in an absolutely identical motion. X felt like cringing. Except for the fact that one Axl ate more sweets than the other, they literally could not be told apart by behavior. And even that was difficult to be sure of, since the real Axl could sometimes go on sugar binges. "Ah… well, both of you. Why are you wearing ribbons on your arms?" Both of them glanced down at their arms, simultaneously.

"Oh, that was Tabby." The one with the green ribbons grinned. "After the third time she kissed the wrong one, she said we just HAD to get something to identify ourselves."

"So now we're wearing ribbons," the other one put in cheerfully. His ribbons were a light blue. "She's off getting popcorn now. Would you like to see a movie, X?" X shook his head, and thought for a moment, trying to figure out a way to find out the answer to the burning question in his mind. He finally gave up and decided to just ask.

"So who's wearing which ribbons?" The two Axl's blinked, then grinned.

"I'm the alternate reality one!" The one with the green ribbons put up his hand.

"And I'm the real one!" Axl shook his head with a grin. "Isn't this weird, X?"

"With you two, that's putting it mildly." Tabby came in with a huge bowl of popcorn, and X stepped back. "Well, have fun with the movie."

If he was hoping the rest of the day would be uneventful, his hopes went unanswered. The next person to speak to him was Zero… and not his own. The alternate Zero seemed terribly amused by something.

"Hey, X! You're this worlds', right?" Zero absently rubbed a hickey on his neck, and X sighed.

"I'm not smoking, am I?" he said wearily. His double's nervous habit of lighting up cigarettes was becoming notorious around the HQ already. X had already heard some pretty bad jokes about it and speculation on exactly how many his double smoked in a day.

"Hah! True 'nuff. Hey, do you know who manages the staff? I mean, the cooks and stuff?" X blinked, caught of guard by that question.

"I… have no idea. Why?" Zero looked a little embarrassed, and then shrugged.

"Well, I was going down to see Maria… she likes to have a good time sometimes, if you know what I mean-"

"What?" X exclaimed, cutting Zero off. "She has three kids! What about her husband?" Zero snorted, waving off that objection.

"That ass? He left her years ago. Turned to booze and drugs after he heard about the Maelstrom and finally disappeared with her paycheck. D'you want to hear what the problem is or not?"

"Problem? Another one?" X winced. In a lot of ways, his double had been right about the problems involved with the alternate Hunters staying at the real HQ. There had been several fistfights, although fortunately no one had pushed things beyond non-lethal weapons. There was a great deal of tension, though, especially between the Repliforce survivors and the rest of the HQ. The alternate X and Zero had always taken care not to offend the pride of those survivors, but most of Hunter HQ couldn't give less of a damn. In this world, Repliforce was disgraced, not a thing to be proud of.

"Yeah, kinda, but I don't want to take this to my X. I remember the last time he tried to deal with something like this," Zero snickered. "He nearly got an eye clawed out when all the ladies went for him." X blinked, entirely lost.

"Could you start from the beginning… what's wrong?" He asked, confused. Zero shrugged.

"I was trying, before you asked about Maria's husband. Look, I was going to see her, okay? So I heard the whole thing go down in the kitchen. Maria doesn't work here in your world, but her mother-in-law DOES. In fact, she runs the kitchen the way Maria ran OUR kitchen. Can you guess they don't get along?"

"Oh, I see." X muttered, suppressing an urge to pull out his own hair in frustration. "Is anyone hurt?"

"Yeah, actually, one of Maria's daughters has a concussion from a frying pan to the head. Could have been worse. Actually, the words exchanged WERE worse. Started with puta and went downhill from there." Zero grinned. "I took a few notes. Never know when curse words can come in handy."

"So what do you want me to do about it?" X asked as calmly as possible. Zero just shrugged.

"Beats the hell out of me… I just know I'm not touching it. But I thought you should know what's going on. See ya later, I have some training to do." X resisted the urge to throw something at his back as the red hunter walked away. It was just like him to tell X about a problem, and give no input at all on how to solve it.

X sighed, and decided to see if he could figure out who was in charge of the domestic staff. It wasn't something he'd had to look into before.

Back in the lounge…

"So, I was curious," the real Axl said brightly after X had left. "If there were no Mavericks, why was there a Red Alert in your world? And do you know who created you?" That was a burning question for him, since he didn't know anything about his own creation. And he and his double were so much alike; it could be assumed that the same person had created them.

He wasn't expecting the reaction he got. Tabby stiffened, her lips tightening, as his double leaned against her. The alternate Axl rested his head on her breast, looking for all the world like a child needing comfort, and Tabby gently stroked his hair.

"I can tell him the story, love, if you don't want to." She whispered, and kissed his forehead as he nodded wordlessly. Then she looked at the startled, slightly guilty double beside her. He hadn't meant to cause the alternate Axl such obvious distress. "Could you tell me exactly what your history was, first? So I can skip over what's the same?"

"Sure," Axl said, puzzled but willing. "I woke up in a ruined building with Red over me. He took me back to Red Alert and I used my copy power for them. They tried to duplicate my copy ability and went insane… so I joined the Hunters and had to retire them." Tabby nodded.

"That's similar, but my Axl's story starts before that," Tabby said as one Axl listened raptly, and the other tried not to. She drew a deep breath. "He was created by Doctor Romero Kennesey. The first and last Reploid he ever made. The good doctor was a genius in cybernetics and VR, but didn't have much to do with mainstream Reploid research. No one knew he was doing anything at all with them until he died." Axl stared at her, utterly enrapt… finally, he had a name for his creator. "But… he died without a will, in our world, and he hadn't left any notes on Axl so no one knew he was anything special. He was activated after the doctor died and sold with the rest of the estate." Tabby slowly stroked Axl's hair, looking down at him, and then fixed his double with a somber gaze.

"That was a bad time for a private sale. Everything was going to hell and… little things like contracts were easy to ignore. He was sold to a moderately wealthy woman who was so unpleasant she couldn't keep any servants. She was a control freak and OCD, so she punished him for the tiniest things, like not putting the honey back in the right place. And sometimes she punished him for imagined slights. He was only a baby then, you understand, and this became normal." Reploids like Axl didn't grow, but a newly activated Reploid was a 'baby' in many important ways. It was possible for a cruel beginning to influence the mind forever. Many Mavericks had started that way. Axl leaned back, shocked and horrified by the revelations. Tabby smiled sadly, still comforting her love.

"Then, one day, she brought another woman to the house, a pretty, athletic girl with brunette hair. Axl's mistress was lesbian and probably hoping to score points with how lovely her place was, but she didn't know her companion as well as she thought. At some point in the evening, she slapped Axl for something, and the other woman stopped her before she could do more. She told the woman that Axl was a thinking being and didn't deserve to be treated that way. Then she knelt down to help Axl up. As she touched him, she slipped a small knife into his hand and whispered in his ear, 'Take your freedom.'" Tabby paused as her Axl looked up for a moment, at his double.

"I don't know her name. I thank her every day, but I never found out her name… She was the first human to ever treat me like a person." Then he snuggled back up to Tabby, and she nodded, picking up the story again.

"So once she was asleep he used the knife, and fled. Red found him hiding in an abandoned warehouse, and took him in. The rest of his history is similar to yours, except that Red Alert was a genuine criminal organization, not vigilantes. They specialized in robberies and protection rackets, until they tried to duplicate Axl's copy power. He left when they started becoming more violent, killing people instead of just beating them up, and the rest is pretty much the same as what you described." Axl swallowed hard as he thought about that history.

Technically, any Reploid who killed a human was a Maverick. In reality, there were exceptions. Reploids who worked in peace keeping needed to be able to kill when necessary, for the greater good. And for Maverick Hunters, mistakes did happen in the middle of battle. But the kind of cold-blooded revenge killing she had described didn't qualify, even motivated by desperation, fear and pain. It wasn't exactly the act of a Maverick, since it was motivated by personal reasons. But that kind of killing would get a Reploid retired anyway.

"Do… X and Zero know about this?" Axl asked tentatively, and Tabby nodded, then smiled. It was a particularly unpleasant smile.

"Oh yes. I don't know about this world, Axl, but in ours the punishment for real slavery can include the death penalty. In a lot of places, they don't even bother with much of a trial if they find you with the slaves. Three executioners, no waiting." Tabby shrugged. "X and Zero decided justice was done. Who's going to argue?" Axl bit his lip, then nodded.

He wasn't sure what to think of what he'd been told, although now he had a name for his creator. That was something, and he could investigate to see if the doctor was still alive, although Axl thought he probably wasn't. His double straightened with a sigh.

"Now that we've gotten all the depressing stuff out of the way… can we watch the movie?" He asked, and the real Axl blushed, reaching for the controller.

"Oh, sure!"

Elsewhere… In Hunter HQ…

Dynamo frowned as he ran through his recording again. He was sitting in his new room at Hunter HQ. It wasn't much of a place, just a chair, table and a recharger, but he'd managed to avoid getting a roommate and it was free. That made up for a lot, although he was wondering how long it would take before someone noticed he was still tagging along and demand he either put up or get lost. He wasn't quite sure which way he'd go when they finally did ask. Bounty hunting was fun and glamorous, but he'd gotten into a comfortable routine with the Hunters. Maybe he'd sign up.

He hadn't followed Iris to the beach expecting she would meet someone. He just liked to watch her, sometimes; when she didn't know he was there. He did that to a lot of people… it was how he got some of his best blackmail material… but watching Iris was different. It was restful, pleasant.

Until tonight. He hadn't been expecting Zero to show up, or for them to get all touchy-feely. The very thought made him scowl.

"Shit, do I really love her?" Dynamo wondered to himself. It wasn't like him to get jealous. He and Iris had not been dating exclusively, and none of her other guy friends had made him feel threatened. But something about the way she acted with Zero told him that this was serious and he was startled by how jealous and angry that made him. Could he really care for her? What had started this?

Dynamo leaned back in his chair, casting his mind back over their on-again, off-again romance. Where had it turned serious for him?

_There._ Dynamo blinked, as he realized it had been the love bug that had sealed his affections. Planting it on him had been a seriously underhanded, suspicious thing to do. In fact, it was something _he_ would have done if he'd thought of it first. It had marked Iris in his mind as more than just another pretty face, as someone who could be just as cunning and clever as him. Strange, that planting a homing device on him had been the real start to their relationship. Most people would have ended it right there, but Dynamo wasn't most people.

So now he knew why Iris meant so much to him. But that still left the question of what to do about Zero. The way he saw it, he had three options. One: Try to assassinate him. That could be fun, but if anyone found out he'd lose his cushy spot at Hunter HQ and probably have to fend off attacks for the rest of his unnatural life. Not to mention that a lot of people had tried to assassinate Zero and failed. Two: He could challenge Zero to a duel. He might even win… he'd been drilling with the Hunters for a long time, and his world's Zero had helped him refine his fighting style. Of course, he might get his ass kicked, and he doubted running away would impress Iris any. Three: He could try to woo Iris away from Zero. That possibility had the upside of not eliminating the other two. He could woo her, and if things were going badly, try something else.

Dynamo clapped his hands together with a grin. That was the ticket! Iris still liked him, he was sure of it, and she didn't know Zero at all yet. He'd just make his interest a lot clearer and see how things went from there.

He could always try to kill Zero later.


	9. Chapter 9

"Are you guys sure about this?" X asked his double dubiously. The alternate X blew a bubble, popped it, then shrugged.

"As sure as I am about anything. We need to recruit, and getting publicity will help." X tapped his fingers against his hip nervously. "God, why won't they let me smoke my cigarettes here?" They were waiting for the news crew to show up.

The alternate Hunters had decided to give a whole series of interviews. The press had already reported the basic information about them and their situation, along with video clips they had taken before they had left, but people were still really curious. Normally, X and Zero wouldn't have given a damn, although Axl might have liked the attention. But right now, they were building a satellite HQ that could comfortable hold four hundred hunters. They had only a hundred. It would take a long time to fill it up, but they needed to get started attracting new recruits right away.

"Not everyone wants to swallow your smoke, X," Zero said dryly. "When are you going to give those things up?" X favored him with a glare, then popped a bubble of gum at him.

"As soon as you give up all the women in HQ." Zero flushed lightly as X blew another bubble. "Not to mention half the men-ah!" The reporter had finally arrived. X sucked in his bubble, and stood up to shake her hand with a friendly smile.

The interview went very smoothly, but it left the real X's head spinning. Zero was about what he had expected… he answered some very embarrassing questions about his activities with aplomb and not a bit of shame.

It was his own double that shocked him. To the interviewer, he was warm, smooth and personable. He didn't blow a single bubble, didn't tap his fingers, and generally acted like an entirely different person. The change was strangely disturbing to the real X. His double was playing to the cameras, putting up a false personality, and it just seemed… wrong.

As soon as the reporter was out of the room, though, his double was pulling out a cigarette. With the human reporter and her staff gone, he didn't need to worry about inflicting his smoke on them.

"God, I'm glad that's over," he said, puffing idly on the smoke stick. "I hate acting the gentle soul for these things."

"Then why do you?" X asked, staring at him.

"Don't want to scare the viewers," The alternate X answered briskly. "I just hope that does the job." They had taken care to mention the location of their new HQ, the need for new Hunters, and all the amenities that were being built in. Hopefully, they'd get plenty of recruits.

"Well, we ought to get back to work." Zero rose from his seat gracefully. "Ready to rock, X?"

"Always!" The real X followed the two of them out, looking at his double's back with very mixed feelings. He just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something badly wrong with how his double could act so completely different…

* * *

At the same time, elsewhere in Hunter HQ.

Iris regarded the vase in front of her, bemused. It was an exquisite crystal vase, square in shape, with an engraved iris on each side. The play on her name was rather sweet, and there was a beautiful bouquet inside of white roses, ferns, and more irises. Iris reached out to tap the vase gently with one finger, and it chimed like good crystal should.

"Brother? Is there some reason I should be mad at Dynamo?" Colonel looked up at her sharply. They were sharing a room, and right now they were both off duty. He had already practiced for several hours, and had finally come back to their room to read a book. Colonel frowned, and ran all of Dynamo's recent actions through his mind.

"Not that I can think of. Why?" Iris sighed, and then shrugged.

"He usually doesn't give me gifts like this unless I'm mad at him and he's trying to make up." She picked up a card that had come with the vase. "He wants a date on Friday, too." Colonel's face settled into a painfully neutral expression, and Iris giggled as she saw it. Colonel didn't approve of Dynamo at all. He also didn't approve of Zero, so he was just trying to stay out of everything.

"It's up to you," Colonel shrugged, then frowned. "That reminds me. Dynamo hasn't officially joined the Hunters yet." The blue haired mercenary had joined them on patrols… usually with Iris… but didn't have an official schedule or standing. He just tagged along and occasionally killed Mavericks. "He should either join, or leave. I'll talk to X about that."

"Mmm hmm," Iris agreed, tapping the vase again. "You don't think he might be turning over a new leaf?"

"Dynamo?" Colonel said incredulously, and they both laughed. "Maybe he's just in love with you." That made Iris laugh even harder.

"One's as likely as the other!" she grinned, then touched an iris lovingly. "But this present deserves a reward… I already have a date with Zero for Friday, but I'll set one up with Dynamo for Saturday." Colonel lifted on eyebrow at her.

"You're going to date both of them at once?" he asked. Iris frowned at him.

"You don't have to sound so disapproving. I hardly know Zero," she pointed out. "And Dynamo's been pretty casual. I won't 'go steady' with either of them for at least a month, probably more like three."

"I usually date one person at once," Colonel said dryly. Iris scowled at him.

"And how many dates do you go on, anyway?" Colonel looked offended, but didn't answer, which was answer enough. Iris grinned maliciously. "Nevermind, brother dearest. I already know." Colonel snorted and looked back at his book. "When are we on patrol tomorrow?"

"Eight hundred hours."

"Ah, good," Iris said, mentally running through her plans for the next day. Now that the alternate Hunters were here to stay, Signas had begun rearranging the patrol schedules so that they were given routes in the territory they would ultimately be responsible for. Since they were building their HQ in Hawaii, they had gotten the duty of checking out numerous small islands for hidden Mavericks. So far, they hadn't found anything. But eventually they might.

Iris smiled, picking up her cell phone and dialing a number. "Dynamo? I just love your flowers. I'm busy on Friday, but we can meet on Saturday…" Colonel sighed quietly, and ignored her. He desperately wished Iris could find a decent man and settle down, preferably someone he knew and approved of. He could think of several under his command he would have been overjoyed to see her with. Naturally, Iris thought they were boring.

He'd just have to hope he didn't end up with Dynamo as a brother-in-law. The very thought was enough to give him chills.

The next morning, Iris was exploring a small island in the Pacific Ocean. Colonel was taking point, Iris right behind him, the two others in their squad taking the flanks.

"Boring boring…" One of the flankers, a male in red armor, complained. Colonel gave him a hard look.

"Pay attention, idiot." The red Reploid flushed, then turned his attention to the surroundings. Colonel scowled. They hadn't met any Mavericks since they began patrols, and despite all his drilling, he'd noticed a certain slackness creeping in. He had already considered requesting being placed in an assault team just to knock the complacency out of them. In his experience, a bored scout was usually a dead scout.

There was suddenly a faint whistle. The flankers didn't notice, but Iris looked around, puzzled. Colonel's blood ran cold as he recognized it.

"_DUCK!"_Colonel shouted, and tackled Iris. She screamed as the world went mad around them.

The red Reploid was obliterated instantly as the missile hit them. The other flanker and Colonel both suffered cruel injuries from the shrapnel. Colonel rolled off Iris with a grunt, drawing his sword as the first Mavericks appeared, flying in off the sea.

_A trap._ Colonel felt sick as he saw the numbers arrayed against them. How had they known his squad would be on this island? There should have been no way they could predict that! Unless they had put in sensors on this island? But why?

"Iris, can you teleport out?" His own teleporter was down… but Iris shook her head, her face pale.

"No, they're scrambling," she answered. Colonel cursed, and they all got ready to meet the attack.

Iris was the only still intact, and she fought valiantly as the first Mavericks landed. But they were all good, no drones, and soon the second flanker had exploded. She and Colonel ended up fighting back to back, until a clever shot took Colonel in the stomach. He collapsed, his body going into emergency shutdown as his generator got dangerously close to overloading. But he stayed conscious long enough to see a steel tentacle shoot over him and hit Iris in the back.

_Iris!_ Colonel tried desperately to reach for her, but instead, he blacked out…

* * *

Perhaps an hour later, Dynamo was hanging around the lounge. He was having a ton of fun being a general pain in the butt.

"Isn't it awfully nice to have a penis… isn't it frightfully good to have a dong…" Several female Hunters gave Dynamo disgusted looks, while a few giggled. He winked at one, who laughed out loud. "It's divine to have a- ah?" There was some serious activity going on outside the lounge. Some yelling, too. Dynamo scratched his head, then went to see what was going on.

"Hmm, damaged Hunters." He could hardly make out who it was, what with all the hurrying to the repair bay. He tagged along well behind, and blinked as he saw Gate in the repair bay. Gate was still doing research, but was going to be taking over as head medic when the new HQ was finished. If he was down here, it probably meant that some of their guys had been shafted.

Dynamo looked over the first guy from a discrete distance. He'd been filled with shrapnel then put through a couple rounds of hard fighting. The medics had him on his stomach, exploring his back, but Dynamo suddenly froze as he recognized the hat on a table nearby.

His gaze darted to the other still form, and he hissed a curse as he saw mint green armor. Iris had taken back her beret, but decided she liked the new paint job. He managed to squeeze over to listen to the medics conversing. Colonel's mangled body was receiving most of the attention, but Iris wasn't looking good in a different way. She moaned and tossed fitfully, hands flailing weakly at phantom enemies.

_Oh SHIT._ Dynamo paled. He had seen that kind of reaction before. He quickly grabbed a medic by the arm.

"Have you checked her jewel chip?" He demanded of the smaller Reploid. The medic blinked slowly, tilting his head back to meet the bounty hunter's eyes.

"No, why?" It hadn't occurred to him at all. Dynamo ground his teeth in frustration.

"The way she's moving. It's active, you idiot!" The medic paled as he realized what Dynamo meant, and he made a bee line to Lifesaver. Dynamo stepped back, content that Iris would at least be put under now. He'd endured an active jewel chip once himself, and he knew that unconsciousness was a blessing. The anti-virus might work to save them, but it was an absolute horror to experience.

He could only hope Iris would survive the experience, the way he had…


	10. Chapter 10

Dynamo slowly stroked Iris's hand, watching her face. She looked sweet, innocent, and vulnerable. A beautiful woman, sleeping soundly. But the monitors and life support systems gave the lie to that illusion.

Iris had gone into system failure twice in the first twenty-four hours of infection, and it wasn't looking any better now than it had right at the start. She was hooked up to full life support equipment, in case the viruses decided to battle over her vital systems again. The Sigma virus was strong, strong, but so was the anti-virus. It had counterattacked with mutating power and mindless ferocity, slowly forcing Sigma back. Dynamo glanced up at the monitor watching Iris' neural net, and winced. The battle was far from won. The Maverick virus might still turn the tide.

Dynamo gently touched her face, slowly stroking a cheek with his fingertips. He was exposing himself needlessly to the virus, and knew it, but didn't care. The chance of infection from casual contact was low anyway. It could happen, which was how most Reploids went randomly Maverick, but it wasn't likely. A good thing, or most Hunters would probably have been Mavericks a long time ago. They often had even more intimate contact with Mavericks, or rather, their body fluids.

"You care for her a lot, don't you?"

Dynamo nearly jumped out of his skin at that soft voice. He'd been concentrating on Iris, and had totally missed Zero entering the room. He looked up to glare at the red hunter, but his anger died at the expression on Zero's face. This had to feel like déjà vu to him, although it would at least be gentler. If the Sigma virus succeeded, they would just quietly pull the plug on her systems. She would never wake up. That thought didn't make Dynamo feel better, and he didn't think it would help Zero either.

"Yeah… I do," he admitted, looking into Iris' pale face. "You do too, don't you?" There was a short pause, then a faint sound as Zero took a seat on Iris' other side. This was an observation room, and it had plenty of seating for friends and family.

"…Yes." Zero finally said. "I hardly know her yet… but I knew my Iris, and they're so much the same…" He gently took her other hand, holding it in his. "It hurts to see her like this."

"Join the club," Dynamo muttered, then frowned. There was something he'd been meaning to ask someone. "How did those Maverick bastards catch Colonel with his pants down?" Dynamo wasn't willing to believe Colonel had been less that professional. Colonel's anal attitude towards duty could be a pain in the butt at times, but no one had ever accused him of being sloppy.

"We're not sure," Zero said, but his tone made Dynamo's ears perk up. His voice smoldered with anger. "But there were no sensors on the island." Dynamo understood what wasn't being said.

"So… they could have interrupted a Maverick exercise, maybe. Bad luck." He said quietly, and Zero nodded shortly. "Or… they knew our schedule and laid in wait for Colonel and Iris." Zero nodded again, and Dynamo sat back to contemplate the possibilities.

The only way for the Mavericks to know the patrol schedule was through a spy. Patrols were very vulnerable so the information was sealed tightly in the Hunter computers. Dynamo didn't think anyone could get at it without some kind of inside access. But who could the spy be?

An idea occurred to him, absolutely blinding in its simplicity. Of _course_ Sigma would do it if he thought he could get away with it! A perfect way to plant ideal agents inside the Hunters…

"Zero, can you help me with something?" If his theory was right, he was going to need the help of someone with a bit of pull around the HQ. And he'd rather do the preliminaries with Zero than either X. Zero had a reason to be motivated and utterly silent on the subject. "We need to do a little… research. Find out which of us alternate Hunters has a Maverick double." Zero looked puzzled for a moment, and then an ugly look entered his eyes as he figured out where Dynamo's suspicions were going.

"I'll go ask Alia to look that up." Zero stood smoothly, like a panther getting ready to spring.

"Don't let her know why," Dynamo warned. In case his idea was wrong, he didn't want it getting spread all over the HQ. If he was right, it was going to be bad enough.

It didn't take long for Zero to get back with a short list of names.

"Wraith, Bicky, Montegron, Voodoo and Razor," Zero said, and Dynamo breathed a small sigh of relief. He'd been afraid the list would have twenty or thirty people on it. "That's if we don't count any of Repliforce."

"We can check them if these ones don't pan out," Dynamo decided. Repliforce hadn't really gone Maverick, so it probably wasn't any of them. "But I know how to get the one we want. The plan goes like this…" Zero listened intently, and halfway through, grinned ferally.

It was the kind of plan that usually worked.

* * *

A short time later, in the repair bay.

Lifesaver scowled at Dynamo and Zero. The bounty hunter was leaning against a wall, arms crossed, wearing a smug expression on his face. Zero was just intent and focused enough to sear holes through the wall.

"Let me see if I understand this right," Lifesaver said in a deadly reasonable tone. "You want me to make her-" He pointed to a nearby female Reploid. She was one of the alternate Hunters, and had volunteered after Dynamo and Zero had approached her with their problem. "Sick with a fungal infection on her connectors."

"You can do it, Lifesaver," Dynamo said in a wheedling tone. "You dealt with a case just last week-"

"And it was hell to get rid of!" Lifesaver snapped. "Why would you WANT me to inflict that on her? And why in hell does SHE want it?" Dynamo and Zero traded a glance. "And will you two stop that? You're acting like conspirators!"

"We are, sort of," Zero admitted, then sighed. "Lifesaver, I'll level with you, but this can't be heard by anyone else."

"I already checked the place for bugs, first thing," Dynamo offered. Lifesaver frowned at them both.

"What's so earth shattering?" His tone made it clear that he doubted anything could be.

His opinion changed rapidly as they explained the situation. Dynamo and Zero suspected that the Mavericks had taken advantage of the fact that a few Mavericks had doubles in the alternate Hunters. They had eliminated a Hunter, and replaced him or her with the Maverick double to spy on the Hunters from the inside. Lifesaver scowled, considering the options, and finally came to the conclusion that inflicting a fungus on the young Hunter was the lesser of two evils.

"Oh, very well! I'll bait your trap. But you had better catch this spy of yours." Lifesaver picked up some equipment, and motioned for the female to lie down. "So you want me to check for jewel chips?"

"Yes. There's no way a Maverick imposter could have gotten one, if he even knows about them." Dynamo grinned mirthlessly. "Which he might not. Who would mention it, and how could he ask?"

"And how will I signal you if I find one without a chip?"

"Just look at me and shake your head," Zero said. "I'll take it from there." His tone made it clear he wouldn't be helping the spy up and giving him a lollipop.

"No killing him," Dynamo warned, and scowled at the nasty look Zero shot him. "Look, we can't get info from a dead guy. Besides, we have ways to make them wish they were dead." Zero frowned at that, uncertain what Dynamo meant, but decided not to ask. They had to organize the trap.

It took a bit of time to organize things, and the unwitting help of Zero's alt double and the alternate X. Dynamo took a little time to say a brief prayer for his soul. When Commander X… both of him… found out what he and Zero had come up with without okaying it they would both be in shit. And knowing the way crap rolled, it would come to rest on Dynamo. Not that he really minded.

Soon, the alternate Hunters were all being checked over for a native fungus that was a bit different from the one in their world, and was already causing one of their friends distress. The young female Hunter suffered quite realistically on a nearby table, her connections exposed and clearly suffering from the fungus.

The suspect Hunters were interspersed with the ones they were sure were genuine. Soon, Lifesaver checked over one of them.

"No problems," he announced without a glance at Zero. Bicky surged to his feet.

"Thanks Lifesaver!" He said with a cheerful wave, and Dynamo breathed a faint sigh of relief. He liked Bicky and Micky. They could be counted on to help liven up a boring day with a good keg party.

Voodoo passed, and so did Razor. But when Lifesaver checked over Wraith…

"You have a slight infection. It could use some treatments." Lifesaver said calmly, and turned around to meet Zero's gaze. His headshake was firm, and Dynamo felt a stab of sorrow. Wraith had spent a lot of time training him to be a competent spy, and he'd really liked the guy. This… sucked.

In an instant, Zero's beam saber was pressing down on Wraith's neck. The startled spy stared up at the Hunter, then frowned.

"What is the meaning of this?" He said in an offended tone, as dignified as it was possible to be with half his chest open and a threatening Zero over him with a saber. But then, Wraith was a hard case in their world, and this one probably wasn't any different.

"Oh, it's just this funny thing we were looking for!" Dynamo said cheerfully as the rest of the alt hunters watched, stunned. "We should all have jewel chips, but gee, you don't seem to have one. Care to explain that?" Wraith's expression turned cold and blank. "You don't have the faintest idea what I'm talking about, do you?" No response. "Didn't think so. Lifesaver, can you put him out?"

"My pleasure." Wraith had more sense than to struggle when a single flip of the wrist could take off his head. But his gaze was poisonous as Lifesaver put him to sleep…


	11. Chapter 11

X slowly played with a knife as he waited for Wraith to wake up. The playing was not skillful or flashy. It would not awe anyone or send chills down their spine. No, it was just X's usual, nervous fidgeting with the nearest item at hand.

When Wraith finally stirred, he certainly didn't fear it. The slit eyed look he gave X was one of contempt. But then, he didn't know the alternate X very well. His own Wraith would have been afraid. Once Sigma had departed, Maverick and criminal attacks had been mostly covert, and vicious. And there was no mercy for captured spies.

X slowly stood up, and walked over to Wraith. Wraith was nearly naked, stripped to his boxers and held down onto a table by titanium manacles. X's face was blank as he looked down at the spy.

"So. Do you care to tell me what you did to our Wraith?" X had a few faint hopes the Mavericks might have taken the spy alive. "And why you arranged to have Iris infected?" Wraith just looked at him for a moment… then spat in his face.

X wiped it away without expression, then rested the knife on Wraith's cheek, caressing his skin with the flat edge of the weapon. It was a vibro knife, and would cut through titanium, although not easily. That would only make it more painful. "You'll tell me, Wraith. One way or the other. Spare yourself some pain."

"You won't do it," Wraith snorted. X regarded him for a moment, his own heart hurting as he realized the young Maverick was serious. He honestly thought X wouldn't hurt him. How could any version of Wraith be so naïve? X would have felt better if he'd been gearing himself for the pain like a professional.

Then the truth came to him, in a moment of clarity. This Wraith was not a trained spy. He had gone Maverick about the same time as the alternate Wraith had joined the Hunters. Sigma had left him uninfected, probably on the off chance it would be useful in the future. But Wraith's going Maverick had been very public… he'd blown up a building… so he hadn't been trained as a spy. When they had come, Sigma had selected Wraith simply because of his availability, not any particular merit. Or perhaps he was simply the best choice of the five available.

That was good, and bad. Good in that Wraith probably didn't have the training in resisting pain their Wraith had undergone, or in muddling up the confession. Bad in that he didn't understand the realities of spying. Sigma wouldn't have told him exactly what he was getting into, so X was going to have to prove it.

X suddenly slashed down, opening a long, thin cut on Wraith's cheek. The Maverick yelped in pain and surprise, then glared up at him as liquids oozed from the wound.

"The penalty for spying is death, Wraith," X said gently, trying one last time. "Your double would have understood. He was a professional spy. You have only two choices… tell me the truth, now, and die quickly. Or refuse and die very slowly." Wraith still glared at him, but a hint of uncertainty and fear showed in his face.

It wasn't enough. Wraith said nothing, and X set his face in a blank mask as he got started…

* * *

Elsewhere in Hunter HQ…

"Zero, Dynamo," the original X said icily. "What in hell were you guys playing at, coming up with that without telling me?" He was really far more upset with Zero than Dynamo. What else could you expect from the annoying bounty hunter? But Zero should have known better.

Unfortunately, his logic was impeccable.

"We couldn't risk the plot getting out, X," Zero said reasonably. "It was just too important. The bastard could have caused a ton of trouble if he'd realized his cover was blown before we could catch him." Dynamo nodded, then added a few thoughts of his own.

"And what if we were wrong? What if they found out somehow else entirely… or if it was just bad luck? A lot of your people don't trust us alternates at all. Why make it worse if we were wrong?" It was going to get worse now, Dynamo was sure of it, but at least it had been for a good reason. The other Hunters with Maverick doubles would have to be kept in groups from now on, to prevent another substitution. X fumed quietly, but couldn't think of an objection to that. They were both right, and it had worked.

The alternate Zero walked into the room, his expression blank. X turned to him, finding a target for another grievance.

"And what are you guys doing with Wraith? Lifesaver and the others should be scanning his core!" Zero gave him an unfriendly look, and X frowned. Zero's double was not nearly as cheerful as usual. "And what's with you?"

"Maybe you. Piss off, X." The real Zero blinked and X stiffened at the hostile tone. The alternate Zero took a deep breath, obviously controlling his own temper. "Sorry, X. It's nothing personal."

"Then what is it?" X said, knowing he sounded peevish but unable to stop it. His own Zero was keeping secrets from him, and now the alternates were holding Wraith without a word of explanation to anyone. They had the right to take care of it since Wraith was one of their unit, but they should have given the spy to Lifesaver to get information out of. What were they doing with him? Gate had the expertise to run the probes, but not the equipment. It was pretty specialized.

Of course, that kind of probe never really netted good results. It easily destroyed as much information as it took in, and it was done after a Maverick was deactivated, so there was no going back. X thought there was very little likelihood they would find out what Sigma's plan was from Wraith.

"Just something going on that I don't like," Zero said, then frowned at X. "…You don't have a clue, do you?"

"With WHAT?" X said impatiently, noticing that Dynamo was looking at him like he was an idiot. The mercenary obviously knew what Zero was talking about.

"What… X is doing to Wraith." X's eyes widened. His double had no real training in repairs, besides being a lab assistant to Dr. Cain, just like himself. He couldn't possibly be doing a mental probe. And the only other way to extract information was…

_No no no NO!_ X shoved past Zero, ignoring the shouts behind him. He was not not NOT going to let his double do this to a helpless Reploid!

As it turned out, though, he was already too late. He ran into the alternate X as he was leaving the interrogation room, his armor splattered with blood and darker fluids. X almost ran into him, then recoiled, horrified.

"Oh, hello X." His double said, weirdly conversational with so much gore on his armor. X stared at him disbelievingly… but his double didn't look perfectly normal. His face was extremely pale, a vague and distant look in his eyes. X felt slightly better, seeing that. But…

"How could you do that?" X said, glancing at the interrogation room. "Is he…"

"Dead? Of course. He was a Maverick." Alternate X said almost indifferently. "I need to get clean, if you'll excuse me." He started away… but X gripped his shoulder, jerking his double around.

"No! How could you do that? Even Mavericks don't deserve that!" X hissed, and his double blinked slowly, then shook his head.

"X, Mavericks do deserve that," his double flatly contradicted him. "At least, a lot of them do. And even if they don't, what's it matter? I do what I have to do. I always do what I have to do…" his double suddenly swayed, blinking rapidly and swallowing hard. "No matter… what it costs me. Excuse me NOW." Alternate X shoved his double away, walking away carefully, but rapidly to the bathroom. X stared after him for a long moment, then looked at the interrogation room, hesitating, then reached for the door. He shouldn't do this. He didn't want to know.

Curiosity was too strong. He opened the door and looked inside… just as the alternate Zero jerked him back. X had gotten only a quick impression of what had been done, but it was enough that he was glad he didn't know more.

"Dammit, X!" The alternate Zero was actually angry. X blinked at him, a bit dazed. The other Zero was usually so cheerful and happy… and feral and joyful in combat. Real anger was very unlike him. "Do NOT snark on X for this. Just DON'T. Do you know what it costs him to do this shit?"

"Costs him? Compared to what it cost Wraith?" Zero growled, and X tried to jerk away. "He's dead! Tortured!"

"And because of that, a lot of people might live," Zero said brutally. "And my best friend just cut out another piece of his heart. So don't you dare hurt him even more!" X stared at the alternate Zero, then looked at his own. He and Dynamo were both peeking into the room. The real Zero just shook his head… he had no idea what to do.

What could they do?

* * *

"So what did you learn from that-" X bit his lip as the alternate Zero shot him a dangerous look, and cut off what he was going to say. "What did you learn?"

His double was sitting across from him, chain smoking again. In fact, he was chain smoking almost feverishly. His face was still very pale and his eyes were strange, as he looked up at his double.

"Oh, quite a bit," X said vaguely, knocking the ash off his cigarette. "For starters, Wraith was picked to do this because he's the only one of the Maverick doubles who didn't have the virus. If they try to insert another one, our scans for the virus will pick them up." That was something of a relief. "And this whole thing was a plot against Zero."

"What?" The crimson Hunter sat bolt upright, surprised. The alternate Zero also looked startled, and X shook his head at him.

"Not you, this world's Zero," he qualified, and took a quick drag from his cigarette. "The virus Iris is infected with is specially tailored to send her into a flying rage against him. If it had worked the way they had planned, he'd have had to kill her again. Sigma figured that might drive Zero to suicide, or at least cripple him emotionally." Zero's head dropped down as he absorbed that, and the real X started to reach out… then blinked as Dynamo touched Zero on the back. He'd never expected any kind of sensitivity from the mercenary. "But the bastard didn't know about the jewel chips. That derailed his plan completely, since Iris just passed out. He doesn't know about the chips yet, by the way, since Wraith didn't know. We ought to step up the production on them before he clues in." They had quietly distributed the plans for the chips to several select, heavily defended facilities. No one doubted that when Sigma found out about them, they would be first on his hit list. "Wraith also knew a lot about Sigma's current positions…" X listened intently as his double rattled off the various pieces of information he'd managed to pry out of Wraith. It was a lot, and that made X shiver. How long had he tortured Wraith to get this out of him?

But the information would be useful. X finally nodded, standing up.

"I'll go tell Alia about this… Zero, are you going to be okay?" Zero still had his head down, but he slowly raised it at X's question.

"Yeah… yeah, X, I'll be fine." He rubbed his eyes, and X hesitated, then finally decided to take him at his word.

He really had to get the information to Alia.


	12. Chapter 12

The room was dim and quiet. The only sound was the quiet beeping of a nearby monitor… and the soft rustle of a person sitting down in a chair.

Zero slowly picked up Iris' hand, watching her sadly. In the interests of keeping her clean and comfortable, a brave soul had stripped off her armor and dressed her in a green hospital gown. The same person had bathed her, unbraided her hair and washed it, then braided it back up when it was dry. Even if the risk was minimal, that was a lot of exposure to the Maverick virus for whoever had tended to her, and Zero felt pathetically grateful for that small consideration. Someone, at least, had not given up hope.

He was trying not to give up hope either, but it was hard. He closed his eyes in pain as he remembered what the alternate X had told them…

"It's my fault. It's all my fault… I'm so sorry." He whispered to the still form on the bed. "If it weren't for me, this wouldn't have happened to you…"

"Oh, stop being an ass," a familiar voice spoke tartly at the door, and Zero's head whipped around to glare at the offending interloper. Dynamo strode in to stand across from him, returning the glare. "Sigma's the only one to blame here, not YOU. So stop being an idiot about it."

"What do you want?" Zero said roughly. He couldn't stand having his pain dismissed so cavalierly, even if Dynamo was right. Dynamo smirked at him, collapsing into a chair on Iris other side.

"Why do you think? Would I let you be the first thing Iris sees when she wakes up?" He said, somewhere between hostile and amused. Zero gritted his teeth, holding in his anger.

"You are a total prick," Zero snarled. He wasn't going to attack Dynamo in Iris room, but at this moment he really loathed the bounty hunter. Dynamo just waved the accusation away.

"There is one other reason I came here… to get you off your self-blaming funk. There's something much better for you to do." Dynamo grinned ferally. "My first teacher always said, "don't get sad, get angry." Think about it." Zero blinked, startled, and did think about it. As he did, a cold smile crossed his face. He could imagine so many wonderful, entertaining things he would do to Sigma if he got the chance…

"You're still a prick," Zero said conversationally. "But you do have the best ideas." Revenge was suddenly very, very appealing.

Suddenly, Zero felt a gentle squeeze on his hand. Startled, he looked down at Iris. Humans had a reflexive hand squeeze gesture… a human could be brain dead, and still do it… but Reploids didn't. Iris was looking up at him, her eyes half open. "Iris!"

Dynamo stiffened in alarm as Zero hugged Iris tightly, looking up at the indicators on the monitor. If they were red, then…

They were green. Dynamo heaved a sigh of relief, then felt like smacking himself. The computers were programmed to keep Iris under if she stayed infected. He grinned, and joined Zero in hugging the life out of her.

"Zero… Dynamo…?" Iris sat up, then reached up to pull the cord connecting her to the computers out of the dataport in the back of her neck. "Ow… what happened?"

"Sigma tried to give you the Maverick Virus… so you would attack me…" Zero stroked back her hair, the guilt hitting him again. "I'm so sorry." Iris blinked, then shook her head… and suddenly stiffened in alarm.

"Colonel! Is he…?" Dynamo patted her back as Zero looked blank, then winced. Zero hadn't thought to check, but Dynamo had kept an eye on Colonel's condition.

"He'll be fine." Dynamo said soothingly. "We got him back in time, and they're still putting him back together, but he's definitely going to make it." Iris looked relieved, giving Dynamo a thankful smile.

"Here, help me out of bed?" Iris used both their help to get unsteadily to her feet. She stepped forward, then looked back at the two men with a smile… and stopped as she realized they were both beaming at her rather stupidly. She looked over her own shoulder, realizing that her hospital gown was definitely not covering any part of her backside. "Ahhh… get out of here! Both of you! Now!" They both hot footed it outside, exchanging an agonized glance as soon as they were out of earshot. Then they burst out laughing.

Maybe it was relief, or just the silliness of the moment. But for some reason, that hospital gown was the funniest thing in the world.

* * *

Elsewhere, the alternate X was arriving back at the HQ.

Dynamo had been correct about how this world's Hunters would react to the Maverick that had taken Wraith's place. The tension in the HQ was thick enough to cut with a knife, and both groups were very, very separate. Even the domestic staff wasn't mixing, although maybe that wasn't surprising, since Maria and her mother-in-law were continuing an ancient cold war. The fact that they came from separate worlds didn't seem to make a lick of difference in their hatred.

So when X walked in, holding a tattered, broken body, rumors immediately started to circulate. The body was too badly mutilated for anyone to tell who it had been, which only added fuel to the flames. Everyone had already heard about X's torture of the Maverick Wraith.

But that reputation had certain advantages. No one was willing to stand in his way… except his double, who stopped him before he could reach the lab that had been set aside for his unit.

"What happened?" X looked at the body, slightly shocked. "Who… was that?" The alternate X glanced down at the corpse, expression blank.

"Wraith." He looked up, fixing X with an empty gaze that somehow conveyed sadness more clearly than weeping could have. "I got the area they killed him from his double. So now, I've retrieved him for proper disposal." X flinched, but nodded.

Human burial was into the ground, because they decomposed. With Reploids, things were a bit more complicated. Burying them in the ground wasn't acceptable, since the parts were very valuable and many of them didn't corrode much. And letting them corrode into uselessness would have only poisoned the ground. Many scavengers always searched through old battlefields, looking for parts from both Hunters and Mavericks that could be sold to salvage companies. But that was undignified, so when they could, the Hunters gathered up the dead bodies and took them back to HQ. Then they were disassembled with respect, while the survivors held memorials in their honor.

The real X looked over Wraith's body, then shook his head. It had at least been quick. It looked like he had died when his fusion reactor exploded, shredding most of his body in the process.

"I'm sorry for your loss," X said formally, standing aside. His double nodded, entering the lab and ignoring the new looks he was attracting.

There would be a new set of rumors running around Maverick Hunter HQ now, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

* * *

"Revenge I am told is a dish eaten cold… but for me, I prefer my food warm. So the first thing I'll do, when I'm coming for you, is to rip off and chew on your arm!" Dynamo grinned wickedly, keeping pace with Zero easily. "From your head to your feet, I'll devour the meat, and the bones I will just throw. Maybe then, you and your friend will find someone else to betray!"

"Where did you get that? I like it." Zero said absently as he nailed several unwary Mavericks.

"The Rhapsody Trilogy. Great books!" Dynamo dodged a blast, returning fire. "Nyah, missed me! OW!" He swore as a blast clipped him, and Zero laughed.

They were making use of the information X had extracted from Wraith. This place was a hidden production centre for Maverick Reploids. It mostly produced metools and very basic Reploids, but it was capable of creating a trickle of higher level Reploids as well, many of whom became Sigma's deadliest fighters. Destroying it would be a blow to the Mavericks… and because it was so deeply hidden, it had never been attacked before. The protections on it were good, but had never been put to the test before.

As it turned out, they weren't good enough to withstand a lightning assault by the Hunters greatest talent… times two. A large number of the alternates were along, and Colonel and Iris were spearheading the attack, just as intent as Zero on extracting some revenge.

"Yah!" Dynamo grinned as he destroyed a final enemy… then blinked. "What the hell?" A bunch of extremely confused looking Reploids were all running towards them. He'd have been tempted to fire… every last one was wearing the Maverick symbol… if Iris hadn't been leading them. She spotted them, and gestured to them frantically.

"Iris, what's going on?" Zero called to her as he dashed over. She came to a stop, and spoke breathlessly.

"X and Zero found them in the production facilities." Zero assumed she meant the doubles, not his X… he was working on clearing out some stubborn pockets along the East side of the facility. "They asked me and Colonel to get them out while they rigged the explosives. They're brand new, uninfected."

"Let's talk while we move," Zero decided, and started dashing back the way they came. Standing around was a spectacularly bad idea. Iris kept pace with him, and Dynamo waited for the rest of the group to pass in an untidy gaggle before taking his place at the rear. "How do you know they're uninfected?" The scanning technology was bulky, and Iris certainly didn't have it on her. The alt doubles didn't, either. But she had a good answer.

"We took over several places like this after Sigma left, in our world. They always do it the same way, different stages of development very compartmentalized. If they weren't in the finishing room, they weren't infected. We left the ones in the finishing room and anything under a D-class."

"Hm." Zero wasn't quite sure he bought that… it was possible Iris was mistaken… but they would be able to check it out back at HQ.

Although the some of the 'newborn' Reploids seemed to be on the verge of spasming.

"What's going ON?" A humanoid female in white and silver armor almost wailed. She had giant wings that threatened to hit several of her fellow youngsters. "Who are you? What are you doing with us?" Dynamo snickered as Iris tried to calm her down. This was a traumatic 'birth' for them, but it was still better than getting blown up before they were even activated. "I'm not going any farther until you tell me what's going on!"

Now THAT was a problem, especially since several of the others looked about ready to join the mini-mutiny. Dynamo did a quick count. There were eleven of them, and at least three were serious combat models, including the high strung female. One was a humanoid rat Reploid, who was watching, his whiskers twitching nervously. The third was a huge, blocky male, easily a foot taller than Zero and armed with rocket launchers set in his shoulders. His armor was stylized and highly individual, dark green and grey with gold piping and red stones. Dynamo was unhappily sure that he had been intended to become another Maverick General. But on the plus side, he didn't seem at all upset about the situation, and was listening to Iris with every sign of attentiveness as she tried to explain.

Suddenly, the large Maverick decided he'd heard enough. He stepped up behind the female and hit her smartly right where her helmet touched her neck. She went down like a sack of grain, and he heaved her up, slinging her over one shoulder.

"Explain the rest outside." His gesture sent the others scrambling as Zero and Iris started off again. Dynamo grinned as he activated his internal communicator.

_Heh__, looks like he was meant to be a leader, too!_ It was possible to program Reploid personalities. Of course, the Reploid in question would still make decisions and evolve with time. But the basic personality was chosen by the manufacturer, and Sigma had obviously intended this one for great things in the Mavericks.

Now, though, he would have other choices to make. If Iris was right about the lack of infection, anyway.

_If they ARE uninfected, Sigma is going to be SO pissed when he hears about this._ Zero sounded smug, and Iris' laugh was sweet and joyful.

The thought of Sigma in a rage was quite pleasing.


	13. Chapter 13

"So, what's the word on those Maverick made Reploids we recovered?" This world's X asked Lifesaver. Lifesaver glanced down at a clipboard.

"None of them are infected. Three class C Akisha models, four class B Samuel's, and the last four are unique. Three of them are combat models, and the last appears to be an experimental prototype."

"Really?" X glanced into lab, where all the Reploids were still staying. The Samuel style Reploids had been built for heavy labor, but more intelligence than the average. They would probably have been used as foremen. The Akisha models weren't actually Akishas, but they were clearly built on the same lines… two attractive girls, and one attractive guy, most likely meant to blend in with the civilian population and spread the virus. But…

"Which one is the prototype?" X finally asked, after staring not at three, but four Akishas. All were extremely pretty, but Lifesaver had said three, so one of them was not as she/he appeared. Lifesaver pointed towards a female with butter-blond hair in two pigtails. She was tall and willowy, with eyes that were anime-huge for her face. X stared at her, and she turned her head to stare back. Her eye color was strange, but beautiful… a burnt umber that darkened to black at the center, and faded to gold on the edges. Then she suddenly smiled, and gave X a saucy wink. X blushed, and looked down.

"It looks like someone was trying out several experiments with her, and perhaps trying to create the 'ideal woman'." Lifesaver's tone showed what he thought of that. "There's no other reason I can see to build all these features into such a small package. Her frame, for example, is made out of an unusual but not unknown alloy. She's extremely light, yet extremely durable. Her muscles are wired in an unusual fashion, and her CPU is running extremely fast. She also has extra processors. I've tested her in several areas, and she's extremely intelligent, her reflexes are extremely quick, and she is very strong for her size. None of these innovations, by themselves, are surprising. But all of them in one Reploid is. Particularly one not otherwise designed for combat." X nodded thoughtfully. The girl had no built in weaponry, although she did have very strong armor.

That armor was actually quite strange looking, and X couldn't help but stare at it. Instead of the usual sections in different colors, all her armor was the same base color… the burnt umber of her eyes. But the base color shaded constantly, darkening to brown and lightening to gold, creating a mottled effect. The only exception to that was a starburst of gold on the center of her chest, surrounding the Maverick symbol. That symbol was removed, now, and had been replaced with a red jewel. The girl wore no helmet, but someone had pierced her ears and set them with dangling, gold and diamond earrings. The diamonds were large, and glittered like tiny stars.

"Does she have a name?" X asked, curious. Most of the others didn't. Only the big green one and the rat like ones had been programmed with their names… Duschane and Lagaroo. The others were nameless. But Lifesaver nodded.

"She says her name is Sigarni." That made X's eyes go wide as an idea occurred to him.

"She couldn't be Sigma's ideal woman, could she?" The names were similar. Lifesaver looked startled, then thoughtful.

"If so, he has good taste," Lifesaver said. That startled X even more than the thought of Sigma being lonely enough to make his own ideal sex partner. He had suspected for some time that Lifesaver was secretly gay. "But she seems rather… small for that." X blanched as he considered that. Sigma was HUGE…

"Um, nevermind," X muttered, shaking his head to get rid of evil pictures. "Does she want to join the Hunters? The alternates need people badly." Although he was curiously reluctant to let Sigarni go somewhere else. Lifesaver frowned.

"I think it would be premature to consider that. They need to learn more about the world and their places in it before they make that decision. I would suggest giving them a month, and putting them through vocational testing." That would help determine what their skills and aptitudes were. They had no idea what the Mavericks had been intending them for, except for the obvious ones like Duschane. And even he might choose to lead a peaceful life. X nodded thoughtfully, glancing one last time at Sigarni.

She met his eyes, and X felt an almost electrical shiver run down his spine. Then she smiled mysteriously, and turned away. X hesitated, then finally left… he had duties to attend to.

But for the rest of the day, he thought about huge umber eyes…

* * *

"Well, this is a whole load of suck." X said, tapping the ashes off his cigarette. Zero sighed softly, and shrugged.

"Not everything can be exciting," he said philosophically. X blinked, then tilted his head to look at the red Hunter.

"Have we switched bodies, or something? That's usually my line." Zero grinned, and shrugged, spreading his hands.

They had both been set to defending one of the jewel chip factories. Sigma had finally found about the chips, and had reacted fairly predictably. X grimaced as he thought about that. A chunk of the 13'th and some of the heavy weapons division had been overcome, and the facility gutted. Fortunately, Sigma had tried to attack too many points at once, and the weakened attacks on the other factories had failed. Some damage had been done, but jewel chips were still going out in a steady stream. So X and Zero from the alternate universe had been set to guarding one of the factories and were getting heartily bored with the process.

"What do you think of what your double said?" Zero decided to change the subject. "You know, about Sigma trying to figure out a way to defeat the jewel chips?"

"I wish he hadn't mentioned it," X said with a grimace, blowing a smoke ring. Zero gave him a questioning look. "I don't like the thought of someone messing with those things. You know what I think about it."

"You and Gate, but we've been using them for ages. Why are you both so pessimistic?" Zero found himself playing devil's advocate. He did have a good idea of what X's objections were, but he wanted to hear them.

"Because it's a damned virus, that's why, and it's as virulent as the Maverick Virus." X said flatly. "It's just harnessed. And Demodyne would never tell anyone who wrote it, or why, and there was no freaking record. They just appeared out of thin air, and that makes my skin crawl."

"Mmm… You think it could be another Maverick virus?" Zero's tone was neutral. "You know, it could have just been written by a genius with a yen for privacy." X was silent for a moment, then nodded with a sigh.

"To be honest, that's the most likely explanation. And we all know it wasn't Sigma's work… I just wish I knew for sure, you know? We have this thing inside us and no one understands it. If the alternative weren't worse…" X shook his head, taking a drag from his cigarette again.

"Well, there's no point in worrying about-" Zero stopped, his sharp eyes catching a hint of movement. "I think I saw something over there."

"Did you?" X murmured softly with a poisonous smile. "Maybe Sigma's sending saboteurs. Let's go see." He was looking forward to some action.

* * *

Both Alia's, Layer and Palette were in the Navigation control room, chatting and giving the alternate Alia pointers. She had been acting as a Navigator in her own world, sort of, but not on a full, professional level. With the Mavericks gone, her skills had often been rather useless. She couldn't hunt down criminals and terrorists in populated areas. So now, she was taking her double's shift and relearning her position, under their supervision.

Although Layer and Palette were there for the girl talk, not to look over her work.

"So how was your date last night?" Layer gently teased Palette, who blushed, hiding it by taking a deep drink from her coffee mug.

"It, um, was nice."

"Only nice?" Alternate Alia said with a grin, checking out some signals. "Zero must be losing his touch. Usually, it's 'oh god, it was so great!' That's what I said, anyway." Her double had been taking a drink of her own cup of coffee, and choked as she heard that, just barely managing not to spray it everywhere.

"Really?" Layer glanced at her Alia, then turned an innocent look onto the other one. "Our Alia is dating X… you're not?"

"His breath is too bad," Alia said absently, making everyone giggle. X's smoking was a standing joke by now. "Seriously, he's not really my type. He used to be so much sweeter, but all the chaos really soured him." Suddenly, a face poked into the room, then a second, identical face right under it. All four navigators laughed… the two Axl's were incredibly cute together.

"Hello, ladies! Do you want some doughnuts?" The Axl from their world, with the blue ribbons, said cheerfully as he held up a large box.

"Or tidbits?" The second Axl, the one with green ribbons, held up a second box with a grin. All the girls laughed again.

"You guys have the sweet tooth from Hell," Alia said with a grin, selecting a crueler. "But thank you." Palette took a chocolate dip, Layer an old fashioned glazed, and the other Alia took a handful of tidbits instead.

"You're welcome," Green ribbon Axl said with a smile, and they both ducked out.

"Those kids are just so sweet… eh?" Alia blinked at the monitor, hand stopping before a tidbit could reach her mouth. "What's this?"

"Hm?" All the Navigators became interested… and worried. Alia immediately paged X.

"X? There's something funny going on in Sector Tango…"

* * *

"You wanted to see me, great one?" Dynamo said lightly, hands on his hips, as he stood before Sigma. Sigma favored him with a look, but let the disrespect pass. He'd given up on making Dynamo regard him with the proper respect a long time ago.

From anyone else, Sigma wouldn't have tolerated it, but Dynamo was too valuable to have slowly taken apart. For now. That could eventually change, and Sigma rather looked forward to it. Dynamo was betting he could keep getting away with it, and so far it was working.

"Indeed. There is something I want you to go investigate." Dynamo managed to look intelligent and interested, tilting his head to one side. "We've lost contact with a research facility. I want you to investigate and find out why."

"Probably the Hunters. How deep a reconnaissance do you want?" They calmly discussed the details of the mission. Sigma resisted a bit, but finally allowed that Dynamo could make it a light recon mission… in, evaluate the situation, then out. Nothing that would be particularly risky. "So what exactly was this place researching?"

"The jewel chips." Sigma's voice dropped to a growl, and Dynamo was careful not to let a flicker pass over his face. By now, he knew all about the chips. It wasn't the first time someone had taken to selling something that was supposed to protect against the Maverick Virus. But all of those had been the modern version of snake oil, useless garbage. The difference between that and the jewel chips was that the chips really worked. They were no miracle cure, but they were better than everything else on the market… and Dynamo had quietly had one installed. He wasn't going to mention it to Sigma… there was every chance he would fly into a rage and execute Dynamo, useful or not… but Dynamo had decided he would rather be dead than a Maverick puppet, if things ever went wrong. Hence the chip.

"I see… even more likely it was the Hunters, then. I'll get right on it." Dynamo turned away. For all his intelligence and undoubted cleverness, his ego was vast. If he had looked back, he might have been unnerved by the thin, cold smile on Sigma's face.

But Dynamo didn't look back. He never did.


End file.
